Barasat, July 30: As much as Rs 36 lakh was looted from a Tata Sumo in which four members of an NGO were travelling to a bank in Calcutta this morning.

Around 11am, the driver of the Sumo screeched to a halt at Gadamara, in the Amdanga area of North 24-Parganas when he found a Tata-407 mini truck blocking the National Highway 34.

Ten people, some of them armed with revolvers, jumped out of the mini truck and surrounded the Sumo, which had three men and a woman besides the driver.

One of the goons threw chilli powder in the driver’s eyes. As he cried out in pain, they forced open a door and yanked out a bag containing Rs 36 lakh.

A police officer said there was another bag containing Rs 14 lakh, which the robbers could not take.

“We have launched mas- sive raids,” said Sugata Sen, the Barasat additional superintendent of police.

The NGO, Calcutta-based All Backward Class Development Mission, micro-finances people belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in remote rural areas of Bengal.

“The NGO is involved in the uplift of the backward classes. Among other things, it provides loans to SC/ST villagers to start business or buy seeds and fertilisers,” a police officer said.

“The NGO members were on a drive to collect dues from the beneficiaries and were returning to Calcutta with the money,” he added.

The dacoits drove away in the mini truck with the bag. The Sumo could not give chase as the driver was injured in the eye.

The police expressed surprise that the NGO did not inform them about its travel plans in advance. “Everyone seeks police protection be- fore travelling with such big amounts. We provide an escort,” a senior district police officer said.