Bhubaneswar, Dec. 30: Two goons on a motorcycle today allegedly robbed a businessman of Rs 4.7 lakh at Idco Tower.

The victim was on his way to deposit the money in a bank. The businessman, identified as Santosh Pradhan, had drawn the money from a private bank in Sriya Square and went to Idco Tower on his motorcycle with a friend.

“As soon as the man kept his vehicle in parking, two goons on a motorcycle approached him and forcefully took away the bag of cash,” said Kedar Pradhan, the parking supervisor and an eyewitness. Pradhan owns a timber depot in Palasuni. Sources said Pradhan has gone to deposit Rs 2,000 in a nationalised bank there.

The two goons in black clothes managed to flee despite security guards being deployed at the building.

“The person who was riding the motorcycle had a helmet on. As soon as we saw them approaching the way through which vehicles enter the building, we tried to stop them, but they drove the two-wheeler in great speed and managed to escape,” said Pritiranjan Das, the security guard deployed at the entrance to the building.

Later Pradhan lodged a complaint with Saheed Nagar police station. Police suspecting that the two might have followed the victim from the bank from where he withdrew the money.

This is the third incident of money snatching in the past four days. On December 27, two motorcycle-borne goons had allegedly broken the window of a car parked in Saheed Nagar and decamped with Rs 35,000 in cash and a laptop kept inside the vehicle.

The victim, Bikram keshari Mohanty, a businessman of Saheed Nagar, had kept the cash in the car after withdrawing it from a private bank near Sriya Square.

On December 29, two goons on a motorcycle had allegedly broken the window of a car and fled with more than Rs 2 lakh in cash from a businessman near Master Canteen Square.

One arrested

Mahila Police today arrested the general manger of a hotel near Master Canteen Square for allegedly molesting a 30-year-old married woman, who worked as a housekeeping staff at the hotel. The general manger, identified as Sourav Kumar Das, 35, was later forwarded to court.

The police arrested Das after receiving a compliant from the victim yesterday.

The victim alleged that Das has been misbehaving with her for two months and had tried to molest her inside a room of the hotel on December 20. She has also alleged that though she had informed the matter to the hotel owner, he did not take any action.

The woman has also alleged that Das had been harassing other women staff of the hotel.