Police at the Hazra Road office where burglars struck on Thursday morning. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Three armed youths, all in their early 20s, stormed a finance company’s office on Hazra Road and decamped with Rs 4 lakh on Thursday morning.

Police said the youths broke open the lock of the cash box with the butt of a revolver and took away the money.

The cleaner of the office, the only employee present when the youths came, has been detained.

“An insider must have tipped off the trio about the cash. For, there was no sign of the youths searching any almirah in the office. They knew for sure where the money was kept,” said deputy commissioner (south) Rajesh Subarna.

Bharat Sadhukha, appointed seven years ago, was cleaning the third-floor office when the trio came around 8.30am.

“Bharat said he allowed the youths, who were speaking Bengali, to enter the office after they told him that they had an appointment with the owner,” said an officer of Gariahat police station.

Once inside, Bharat claimed, the youths brought out the firearms and bolted the door. One of the robbers held Bharat at gun-point and another took out the money from the cash box after breaking open the lock with the butt of his revolver.

“According to Bharat’s version, the operation lasted 10 minutes. Before leaving, they tied the cleaner’s hands and legs,” said an officer working on the case.

“No one in the building noticed the youths entering or leaving the building. The robbery was detected when other employees turned up around 9.30am.”

The owner of the company, Sridayal Sharma, said he had got the money after finalising a deal with one of his clients on Wednesday night. He was to deposit the money to a bank on Thursday morning.

“We are sure that an insider had tipped off the robbers. Bharat is one of our suspects. He was present in the office while the deal was being finalised and saw Sharma keep the money in the cash box,” said the investigating officer.