Ranchi, May 26: Jharkhand has become the Wild West of the east in the past few days: two daring thefts today close on the heels of last week’s highway robbery of a bank’s armoured car are irrefutable proof of the present state of lawlessness.

Four motorcycle-borne robbers stole Rs 17.42 lakh in front of Birsa Biological Park in Ormanjhi while 120km away in Simdega, six persons — also on motorcycles — fled with Rs 3.27. Both the robberies occurred at gunpoint.

The robbery near Birsa Biological Park on NH-33 occurred around 1pm.

Two employees of an Ormanjhi-based petrol pump were on their way to the Booty branch of State Bank of India to deposit the money when they were intercepted by four in front of the Birsa Biological Park. One of the men took out a gun and pointed it at the driver, threatening to kill him if he did not give up the money.

Jai Pathak, an employee of the petrol pump who was waylaid, said they took the cash from him. “One of them pointed a gun while another asked me to give up the two bags containing the cash. Before I could think, they opened the door, snatched the bags and fled,” said Pathak.

An FIR has been lodged at Ormanjhi police station.

The other robbery occurred at Lachargarh under Kolebira police station in Simdega. Six armed men robbed Rs 3.27 from a Bank of India branch before fleeing on bikes.

However, within two hours, police recovered the money, the firearms and two motorbikes at Basia forests in Gumla. But the robbers are yet to be identified.

An FIR has been lodged at Kolebira police station.

Referring to the Ormanjhi robbery, Ranchi senior superintendent of police M.S. Bhatia said investigation was on. The robberies were occurring as the police were busy trying to recover the Rs 5.5 crore and a kg of gold robbed by rebels from an armoured van in Tamar on the NH-33 on Wednesday, he said.

“Robbers and extremists have become active in other parts of the state as we were concentrating on recovering the cash and gold coins of ICICI Bank,” he said.

Wednesday’s incident was the start of a slew of embarrassing episodes for the police. The next day, convicted gangster Anil Sharma escaped from RIMS. He has 33 cases against him. The police still have no clue about the his whereabouts. Between Wednesday and Sunday, rebels have attacked at least thrice.

WILD EAST

May 21: Gang steals armoured van carrying Rs 5.07 crore and 1.02kg of gold coins
May 22: Extremist open fire on police at NH-33
May 23: Notorious criminal escapes from RIMS
May 25: Extremists blow up culvert at Tamar
May 25: Rebels kill one, injure three and set several vehicles on fire at Angara
May 26: Robbers flee with Rs 17.42 lakh in Ormanjhi and Rs 3.27 lakh in Simdega