Ranchi, Feb. 13: They once served the army with zeal and valour, taking on toughest assignments in adverse conditions. This afternoon, these ex-servicemen, now working as security personnel, could not even protect their very own salary.

It was broad daylight, when a gang of four forced their way into Ranchi Security Limited on busy Ratu Road, collected Rs 5.95 lakh in cash brandishing firearms, and left from right under eight noses.

Interestingly, the entire operation took 15 minutes, with all eight ex-army men not even batting an eyelid, leave alone put up a resistance.

City superintendent of police Suman Gupta does not rule out connivance of a section of the security staff. The agency director, Aniruddh Singh, told the police they had received Rs 11 lakh from the Reliance Group three days ago through a draft in lieu of the salary for security staff posted with them.

?The gangsters, it seems, had prior information about the transaction and were aware persons from the agency had gone to the bank today to withdraw the cash. Everything looks well-planned,? Singh admitted to The Telegraph.

According to eyewitnesses and police, around 1.15 pm four security men had returned from the bank with the amount to pay salary to the guards. ?Even as the four security personnel had gone to the bank, two young men came to our office seeking jobs of guards. Our accountant told them there was no vacancy but they stayed on,? said Singh, who was present at the time of the robbery.

The bag containing the cash, meanwhile, had arrived, when suddenly the two jobseekers flashed their weapons and locked the main entrance from inside, eyewitnesses said. ?While one of them held a gun on the head of the director?s son, Vigyan Kumar, the other accomplice overpowered agency officials Faninder Kachchap and Pawel Tirkey,? said an eyewitness.

Two more accomplices, who were standing guard outside, drove their men away on motorcycles, they added.

Deputy superintendent of police (city) Kumar Ravi Shankar thinks the gang could have either escaped through Telephone Exchange Road or through any of the bylanes of Ratu Road bustling with traffic during the peak hours.

Ex-servicemen have their association, whose office is on the same premises as that of the security agency.

In September last, the same security agency was robbed near Rargaon on Ranchi-Tatanagar highway, while transporting salary to Jamshedpur.