Bhubaneswar, July 4: Khurda police are looking into the aspect of any bank official’s possible involvement in the daylight loot at the Narangarh branch of Odisha Gramya Bank, 45km from here, on Wednesday.
Four gun-totting men decamped with gold jewellery and cash worth over Rs 2 crore, injuring three bank employees and a local youth.
The cops’ suspicion of an internal association with the robbery is because none of the three closed-circuit television cameras installed inside the bank are functional.
One of these cameras had been put up to monitor the account section, which is also the office of the branch manager.
Moreover, the heist took place when a special audit of gold was being conducted with regard to a gold loan scam in the bank’s Dumduma branch in May. Khurda police superintendent Dayanidhi Gochhayat said the police had stumbled upon certain vital clues which would help them nab the culprits.
“Two platoons of police force have been deployed to hunt the robbers. We hope to catch them shortly,” said Gochhayat.
The police are also investigating the motive behind the bank officials not deploying a guard.
Though some branches of the Odisha Gramya Bank have security guards, the Narangarh branch, located at an isolated place, did not have any security guard, in spite of robbery attempts being made there in the past.
Though the bank officials had claimed theft of around 800 packets of gold ornaments along with a cash worth Rs 11 lakh, during the course of investigation the police found that the booty included only 296 packets of gold ornaments and Rs 7.7 lakh cash.
Murder probe
The police, who are yet to get any strong evidence of retired army doctor Somnath Parida killing his wife Ushashree, today started interrogating the help who used to work in Parida’s house months before the murder took place.
The help, identified as Renuka, was working there months ago.
During the interrogation today, the police asked her several questions to find out whether the couple used to have a bitter relationship.
During the interrogation, Renuka revealed that Parida was a strict man and the couple often used to have arguments over trivial matters, said a source in the police.