They came, they looted and they fled with your hard-earned money, which you were waiting to withdraw standing in a queue perhaps for hours.
Three armed criminals looted Rs 21.3 lakh cash from the Pandey Parsawan branch of Madhya Bihar Gramin Bank in Gaya, around 100km south of Patna, holding employees and customers captive on Friday around 1.30pm.
An investigating officer in the case said out of the total Rs 21.3 lakh amount, Rs 20.72 lakh were in old currency notes and the rest (Rs 58,000) were in new notes in the denomination of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500.
Eyewitnesses told the police that three criminals in a motorbike reached the bank around 1pm and inquired about the process to exchange old notes. While one of the robbers engaged the cashier-cum-accountant in a discussion, another entered the manager's room. The third stood guard near the entrance pretending as if they did not know each other.
The robber, who barged into the acting manager, Ashok Kumar Bharti's room, held him at gunpoint and allegedly threatened to shoot him if he tried to raise an alarm. The manager handed over the keys of the strong room where the cash was kept. The robber collected the money in bags, signalled his accomplices and said: " Chalo, kaam ho gaya (work done)." It took them 15-20 minutes.
A police team headed by Gaya senior superintendent of police (SSP) Garima Mallick reached the bank soon after the incident.
The investigating officials have been directed to collect serial numbers of the notes from the banks and circulate them according to region so that they could be traced if anyone tried to deposit them in banks.
"The next 24 hours are very crucial for the police," deputy inspector-general (Magadh) Saurav Kumar said.
He added that Mallik has been asked to monitor the operation.
The police mostly depend on the technical surveillance of mobile phones to find the robbers.
The manager of the bank told the investigating officials that a major part of the looted money was received from customers on Thursday, the last day to exchange old notes from banks. There was no security guard at the bank.
Saurav Kumar said a special police team (SIT) comprising two deputy superintendents of police - Alok Kumar Singh and Balram Kumar Choudahry - and a few inspectors have been set up to crack the case at the earliest. Some specific tasks have been assigned to each member of the SIT, he told The Telegraph.
The DIG is learnt to have instructed the SIT members to collect the closed-circuit television camera footage. He has also asked the SIT to verify the credentials of an employee, who joined the bank on Friday.
Inspector-general (Patna) Nayyar Hasnian Khan also spoke to the Gaya SSP over phone and issued necessary instructions to help solve the case.
Youth shot dead
In another incident, a youth identified as Rajiv Ranjan Singh, was shot dead by armed criminals at Dighwara in Saran on Friday. The incident occurred when the victim had gone to withdraw money from a local bank. A rickshaw puller, who was standing nearby, also received bullet injuries during the firing.
The criminals, according to locals, fired at Singh from point-blank range outside the bank. Singh, a resident of Bada Gopal village, had reached the bank after dropping his relative at Dighwara bus stand. The criminals attacked him as they thought he was coming out of the bank with money. Saran superintendent of police Pankaj Kumar Raj said raids were on to arrest the criminals.
