A gang of petty criminals allegedly robbed a bank's cash to buy expensive gifts for their girlfriends.
The startling incident came to the fore after the arrest of five youths in the age group of 18 and 23 years on Monday. The Vaishali police claimed that the youths were planning to commit another robbery in the town at the time of their arrest.
During interrogation, the arrested youths confessed to their involvement in the loot of Rs 14 lakh of a nationalised bank from Hajipur town on Friday. The accused also admitted that they carried out the robbery in daylight to get enough money to buy expensive gifts for their girlfriends like the character of Emraan Hashmi did for his "girl" played by Prachi Desai in Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, released in 2010.
Vaishali superintendent of police Chandrika Prasad said the youths used to commit crimes to gift costly commodities such as smartphones and designer clothes to their girlfriends. "The call details of the arrested youths confirmed that they were in touch with several girls," he told The Telegraph over phone.
Prasad said the youths spent a lot to foot the bills of restaurants at Hajipur and in Patna. "Astonishingly, a few of the arrested youths come from well-to-do families," the SP said, adding that the arrested youths were also involved in chain-snatching and theft of motorbikes.
During interrogation, one of the five youths - Pintu - was identified as the driver of the woman bank cashier, who was robbed of Rs 14 lakh. The cash was robbed at pistol point at Bagmalli under the jurisdiction of Hajipur Sadar police station on February 28, around 20km north of Patna. The cashier was on way to the main branch of the bank to deposit the money when the incident occurred, a police officer said.
The other arrested youths have been identified as Chanchal Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Pradyumna Kumar and Arun Kumar. All of them are residents of Digghi near Hajipur, the district headquarters of Vaishali.
The police claimed that Chanchal was involved with as many as eight women. The rest had two to three girlfriends. Besides some cash, the police seized three pistols, seven live cartridges, eight cellphones and three motorbikes from their possession.
"The criminal antecedents of the arrested youths are being ascertained," said Hajipur Sadar sub-divisional police officer Pankaj Raut, adding that three other accomplices of the arrested youths managed to give the police the slip.
Earlier, a special police team comprising station house officers of Hajipur Town, Patepur, Goroul, Bhagwanpur and Sarai - Jitendra Prasad, Chandan Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Vikramcharya and Ranjit Kumar, respectively - was constituted to crack the case.
The role of the woman banker was also under the scanner because the vehicle in which she was travelling at the time of the incident belonged to her father-in-law.
