Petrol outlet staff robbed of Rs 9.58 lakh in Muzaffarpur

PATNA: Unidentified motorbike-borne criminals looted Rs.9.58 lakh from an employee of a fuel outlet at Purani Bazaar under the Town police station area in Muzaffarpur on Monday.
The incident took place around 1.30 pm when an employee of the petrol outlet Mukesh Kumar was on way to deposit the amount in the Jawaharlal Road branch of Allahabad Bank on his motorbike after collecting the same from the owner’s house.The outlet is located at Madhaul village under the Turki police outpost in Muzaffarpur district.
Two criminals in the age group of 20-25 years, riding a motorbike, intercepted Mukesh and snatched the bag containing the money and esacped with the booty. The victim raised an alarm but to no avail.
Muzaffarpur sadar DSP Ram Narayan Paswan said that Mukesh used to deposit the money of the fuel outlet. “It seems that the criminals were aware of it and they chose the opportunity to execute their plan as the bank was closed for two consecutive days and huge cash was stocked,” he said.
Police officials were busy in collecting CCTV footage from nearby shops to ascertain the identity of the robbers, who dared to carry out the operation in broad daylight. “We are already on the job,” the DSP told this newspaper over phone.
A team of police officials also quizzed the owner of the outlet and the staff who was carrying the amount to deposit in the bank. “Mukesh, a resident of Kanti, is serving here for the last two decades,” an investigating officer said quoting the owner of the pump.
Incidents of cash loot have shot up in the district in the last few months. Earlier, a cloth merchant of Mahua in neighbouring Vaishali district was robbed of Rs.27 lakh by armed criminals under the Sadar police station area of Muzaffarpur in October. In addition, a sum of Rs.9.5 lakh was looted in two separate incidents in the district in September.