A policeman looks at the safe that was cut open. Picture by Nityananda Sarkar

Raiganj, Feb. 8: A gang of criminals broke into a rural bank in Hemtabad last night, cut open the safe and cleared out Rs 13.75 lakh. The bank had received around Rs 20 lakh yesterday to pay the salaries of teachers in 11 high schools of the area.

Branch manager Madhusudan Ghosh discovered the robbery when he opened the bank this morning.

“All papers and files were in place. Only more lights were switched on than normal. Then I saw that my telephone line had been cut. I went to the vault and found the safe on the floor, its lock cut and the money gone,” said Ghosh.

This is the fourth bank robbery in the Raiganj subdivision in the past two months. No one has been arrested in any of the cases.

Investigating officers said the criminals had information about the money that had been deposited.

The Hemtabad branch of Bangiya Gramin Bikash Bank (formerly Gour Gramin Bank) is located on the first floor of a market complex, which also houses the local panchayat office. The market is 20km from here on the state highway to Balurghat.

The gang — the investigators said 10-12 people would have been needed to lay the safe on the floor — entered the bank through a side door after breaking the lock of the collapsible gate.

“That is the only door which cannot be bolted from inside,” said investigating officer Purnendu Kundu. “The criminals used electric cutters to cut open the safe, probably drawing power from the plug points used for the bank’s computers.”

District police chief Swapan Banerjee Purnapatra visited the bank today. “The bank did not even have an alarm bell,” he said.