Bhubaneswar, July 3: Five unidentified goons today looted gold jewellery and cash worth more than Rs 2 crore from the Narangarh branch of Odisha Gramya Bank, 20km from Khurda district headquarters.

The dacoits also injured three bank employees and a local youth. The bank did not have any guard deployed there.

The heist took place around 11.45am when five youths on two motorcycles reached the bank and opened fire at its employees. The youths, who had their faces covered with handkerchiefs, threw crude bombs inside the bank to frighten the officials. All of them were carrying guns.

An eyewitness said the dacoits began firing as soon as they had entered the building. After firing once in the air, they shot cashier Bijay Kumar Patnaik, who had to be rushed to Capital Hospital. He has suffered severe injuries on his abdomen.

The bank has only three employees on regular days. But, since an audit of the jewellery stock was going on, a goldsmith and an auditor were also present when the incident took place. The audit was being undertaken in the wake of a gold loan scam in the Dumduma branch of Odisha Gramya Bank in May.

The manger along with the auditor and the goldsmith was in another room, while the cashier and a peon were on the counter. As the robbers shot the cashier, the peon scampered for security and joined his other three colleagues in the adjoining room.

“We tried to keep the door firmly shut, but they threw a bomb and managed to enter the room. They asked for the vault’s keys and when the manger refused, they shot him on his leg. Holding the manager at gunpoint, the robbers forced him to open the vault and fled with the cash and ornaments,” said P.K. Bhanj, assistant manger of the Bajapur branch. Bhanj, who was there for the audit, was hit by a bomb splinter. He said the robbers were speaking in Odia.

When the bank officials managed to trigger the alarm, its sound was muffled by the noise emanating from the nearby railway station. The people, thus, heard the alarm late, and by the time a modest crowd gathered outside the bank, the dacoits had wound up their operation. They escaped after hurling a bomb at the onlookers.

Local residents gather outside Odisha Gramya Bank near Khurdha after the robbery on Wednesday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Three of the dacoits fled with the cash and jewellery kept in 800 packers on their motorcycle, while the other two ran as their motorcycle did not start. They later snatched the motorcycle of a young man at the railway crossing near Tapang railway station after injuring him. The youth, Biswajit Parida, has been admitted to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar in a critical condition.

Police said the dacoits’ original plan was to flee to the villages beyond the railway crossing. But, since the level crossing was close, they were forced to take the road towards Malipada Chhak on the national highway 5.

The dacoits looted the customers present in the bank as well. “They took away Rs 470 in cash that I had with me,” said Sudarshan Biswal, one of the customers. A local resident said the robbers had hurled at least five bombs while carrying out the operation.

The police said the dacoits had dumped both the motorcycles at Dadhimachagadia Square, 10km from the bank, along with three bags of which only one is believed to have contained some ornaments. Leaving the motorcycles there, they vanished into the nearby forest adjacent to the national highway.

Khurda police, who have launched an inquiry, did not rule out the involvement of bank officials in the incident. “Both the motorcycles seized by us are stolen vehicles. We have launched a manhunt to arrest the dacoits,” said Khurda district superintendent of police Dayanidhi Gochhayat.

“We have deployed security guards in only some of our branches,” said general manger of the Odisha Gramya Bank Sumanta Mishra, who rushed to the spot after the incident.