Patna, July 25: A 22-year-old youth travelled from Chennai to Patna to commit crime in Bihar. Sounds incredible!

However, if police officers posted at Hajipur town police station in Vaishali district are to be believed, Laxmanan, a resident of Tamil Nadu, covered a distance of about 2,800km to commit robbery in a nationalised bank at Hajipur, nearly 20km north of Patna.

Laxmanan was arrested while fleeing after snatching a box containing Rs 11.21 lakh from Kachahari branch of Canara Bank at Hajipur on Friday. Though his three associates — Canady, Ravi and Krishna — managed to give a slip to the police, Laxmanan was caught with the help of some shopkeepers and the passers-by of the area.

The police officials were surprised to know that the arrested bank robber was a resident of Tiruchirapalli near Chennai. “It was quite baffling to learn that all the four robbers had travelled from Chennai to Hajipur to rob the bank,” said station house officer (SHO) of Hajipur town police station Arun Kumar Keshari.

The SHO said it was difficult for the police to ascertain the antecedents of Laxmanan and his associates as he was speaking in Tamil, a language not known to any police official posted at Hajipur. “We got information about a pundit (priest) hailing from Andhra Pradesh working at a local temple. The pundit was summoned to help the police. We somehow came to know that all the robbers were scheduled to return to Tamil Nadu the same day after committing the crime,” he said,

The police officer said though a police team was sent to Patna to arrest Laxmanan’s three associates, who were scheduled to board a train at Rajendra Nagar Terminal for Tamil Nadu, the police returned empty handed. “We failed to locate the three robbers,” he said, adding that had Laxmanan escaped, it would have become almost impossible for the police to arrest the real culprit.

On being asked what prompted Laxmanan to come to Bihar, the SHO said he (Laxmanan) is a driver by profession. He told the police that he boarded a train for Patna after his vehicle met with an accident near Chennai three days before he was caught in Hajipur.

“I met with three youths — Canady, Ravi and Krishna — in the train. As the trio belonged to my neighbourhood, we planned to commit a dacoity in a bank somewhere near Patna. Hajipur was finally selected. We all reached Hajipur by an autorickshaw. Then the search for the soft target began on a rickshaw,” an investigating officer quoted Laxman as saying.

They chose Kachahari branch of Canara Bank for their operation. According to the plan, they entered the bank as bonafide customers. “As there was no rush in the bank at that time, the manager took out the cashbox from the chest and put it on the table. After getting signal from Canady, I (Laxmanan) pounced on the box and made his escape good,” the police officer quoted Laxmanan as saying.

But Laxmanan was spotted throwing the cashbox at a secluded place and was caught by the owner of a salon located at Gandhi Chowk. He was handed over to the police but not before being thrashed by an irate mob.

Vaishali SP Sidharth Mohan Jain said a police team would be sent to Chennai to ascertain the antecedents of Laxmanan. “We are in touch with the Tamil Nadu police to arrest three others involved in the crime,” he said.