Bihar: Criminals raid Muzaffarpur bank, loot Rs 6.8 lakh

PATNA: A gang of six armed criminals looted Rs 6.82 lakh in cash from Repura branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) under the Saraiya police station area in Muzaffarpur district on Thursday. The criminals also opened fire in the air to terrorise the locals who pelted stones at them.
The incident took place around 11.20am when the bank officials were busy dealing with the customers.Four youths armed with country-made pistols entered the bank, held the employees captive and collected cash from the counter and chest. They assaulted the cashier, Akhilesh Kumar Paswan, with revolver butts.
Akhilesh told police that the criminals overpowered the two security guards — Upendra Kumar and Raju Paswan — and collected money from the cash counter. They then forced the manager of the bank branch to hand over the keys of the chest.
The robbers collected cash from the chest in plastic bags and fired in the air on the bank premises to terrorise the employees and customers. Two criminals having weapons in their hands stood guard on the main road.
“When we pelted stones at the criminals, they opened fire in the air. They later escaped with looted money on their motorbikes,” an eyewitness said.
The manager of the bank branch, Manish Anand, told police that the robbers also snatched cash from some customers. The security guards said they couldn’t identify the robbers as they were wearing masks and had covered their faces with clothes.
Saraiya sub-divisional police officer Rajesh Sharma said efforts were on to identity the robbers with the help of CCTV footages. He added three empty cartridges were recovered from the spot.
A video showing robbers in action later went viral on social media. On getting information, Muzaffarpur SSP Jayant Kant reached the spot and asked the SDPO and the SHO to crack the case at the earliest.