Rs 5.85 lakh looted from Begusarai UCO Bank

PATNA: At least half a dozen heavily armed unidentified criminals looted Rs 5.85 lakh from the UCO Bank branch at Akopur village under Cheria Bariyarpur police station area in Begusarai on Tuesday.
"Cashier Nishant Kumar received severe head injuries as he was thrashed by robbers during the loot," police said. The loot amount could have been much more as Rs 1 crore was scheduled to be brought at the branch from the bank’s main branch in Begusarai.
The incident took place between 12noon to 12.15 pm when there were at least 25 customers inside the branch.
Branch manager Mohammad Parvez told TOI over the phone that the team bringing Rs 1 crore to the bank was stopped midway soon after the looters fled. He said altogether Rs 5,85,125 was looted.
“There is no dedicated security guard for the branch. It is the patrolling team of the nearest police station which visits the branch each day around 1 pm,” he said.
Parvez said there were three officers, one sub-staff and at least 25 to 30 customers inside the branch when four criminals had barged inside the bank premises.
“They hit Nishant hard on the head with a pistol butt which resulted in severe bleeding. They had asked him to give up all cash but in nervousness, he was unable to follow instructions which annoyed the criminals further,” he said.
The manager said everyone inside the premises was taken hostage at gunpoint and the criminals forced the bank employees to open the iron vault.
“They collected all the money from the vault as well as from the cash counter and fled,” Parvez said.
Cheria Bariyarpur police station SHO Ravishankar Prasad said police were going through the CCTV footage of the branch to identify the criminals. “Raids are on to nab them,” he added.
A villager, Lalit Bharti, told this newspaper that six criminals on three bikes were spotted reaching the spot.
“They knew the branch’s layout. They went directly towards the cashier,” he said.
Bharti said the criminals were inside the branch for more than 10 minutes and fled easily without any resistance. “They didn’t even care to lock anyone inside or take away cellphones,” he added.
Bharti said the criminals, after leaving the branch turned towards a village road leading to Rampur Ghat bridge over Burhi Gandak.
“That road leads to different areas including towards Samastipur. The criminals might have escaped out of the district,” he said.
Cellphone showroom staff shot at, Rs 7 lakh looted
Two armed bikers shot at a cellphone showroom staff Sunil Kumar Thakur (28) and looted around Rs 7 lakh from him near the busy Meera Talkies Road under Sadar police station area of Saharsa on Tuesday.
Sadar SDPO Santosh Kumar said Thakur was going on his bike to deposit the money in a bank when he was waylaid around 1 pm.
“Two bike-borne criminals intercepted him and tried to loot the bag containing money. After he resisted, one of the criminals pulled out a pistol fired,” Kumar said, adding, Thakur received a bullet injury in one of his legs after which the criminals snatched the bag with money and fled.
SDPO said the injured person was taken to a hospital where his condition is said to be stable. He said police are scanning the CCTV footage to ascertain the identity of the accused.