Berhampur, July 14: Goons broke open the iron chest at the railway reservation counter here and decamped with Rs 4, 76, 820 here last night.

The goons had broken an iron grill and removed the glass pane installed outside the counter to get access to the reservation counter’s iron chest.

Biranchi Narayan Patnaik, chief reservation supervisor of Berhampur railway station, said that the reservation counter on the first floor of the building was shut down at 10pm last night.

“The employees had kept Rs 4, 76, 820 cash in the iron chest and locked the grill of the counter in presence of the Railway Protection Force and three railway employees. When I opened the lock of the counter at 7.30 this morningin the presence of RPF personnel and other employees, the glass pane of the counter number 5 was found to be removed. Though the iron chest was not tampered with, it was opened with a slight twist of the handle. There was no cash inside,” said Patnaik.

“We searched for the cash at various places in the counter presuming that Ashok Kumar Panigrahi, the railway official on duty last night, might have kept the amount somewhere in hurry. But soon, we were confirmed that a burglary had taken place. Higher authorities were informed about the incident immediately,” said Patnaik.

“I have been working with the railways for last 30 years. This is the first time that such an incident has happened,” he said.