Police investigate the robbery at UCO Bank’s Liluah branch. Picture by Gopal Senapati

Seven youths looted Rs 3.85 lakh from UCO Bank’s Liluah branch on Friday, holding the employees and customers at gunpoint and beating up a policeman.

The branch does not have a security guard for two-and-a-half-years. Closed-circuit cameras are also missing. There is an alarm system, but nobody managed to press the button.

The dacoits, carrying revolvers and knives, laid siege to the branch, on GT Road, soon after it opened in the morning. A dozen employees and eight customers were inside when five of the dacoits barged in. The other two stood guard at the entrance.

“One of the robbers, wearing jeans and jacket, inserted the nozzle of a revolver into my mouth, and demanded the key to the locker,” said Tapan Mukherjee, an employee.

Around this time, branch manager Subir Adhikari entered the bank. The dacoits beat him up and demanded the key to the locker. “I had no alternative but to hand over the key,” said the manager.

The dacoits herded the employees into a cash counter and made the customers sit with their heads bowed before opening the lockers and taking out the money.

As the dacoits were about to flee, Bally police station sub-inspector Jayanto Mohanto dropped by at the branch. The youths overpowered him, took away his service revolver and cellphone and locked him in the locker room before decamping with the money.

Howrah police superintendent Niraj Kumar Singh said: “The dacoits spoke fluent Hindi and appear to be from outside the state.”