Rourkela, June 15: Three men armed with pistols took away cash worth Rs 1.20 lakh from an old age pension distribution centre at Lukumbeda gram panchayat in Nuagaon block, around 30km from the steel city, this morning.

Sources said that three Hindi speaking youths, who came in three motorcycles, pointed their guns at sarpanch Gandhuru Barla, panchayat executive officer Bimbadhar Sahu and the peon Padu Badai, who were distributing the pension and payments of labourers who worked under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The sarpanch said that they usually distributed the money on the 15th of every month. Yesterday they had drawn the cash from the bank and today they were distributing it.

“We had already disbursed around Rs 30,900 when these gun-totting youths appeared. They pointed the pistols at the 50 odd people who had gathered there to scare them away. When they demanded the money, I resisted and they beat me up before decamping with cash worth over Rs 1.20 lakh,” said Barla.