The inspector of Plant Site police station with the bank manager on Friday. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Rourkela, Sept. 19: A youth today looted Rs 40 lakh cash from a branch of Syndicate Bank in a mysterious manner.

The police are trying to apprehend him on the basis of CCTV footage.

The footage showed the youth walking into the bank’s branch in front of Uma Cinema around 12.50pm. He was seen surveying the bank, and within minutes, he was inside the official area where the staff members sit and carry out the cash transactions.

Later, he was seen walking to the cash section, where money was being disbursed and after a while walked away with the cash, kept in a box.

“Suddenly, the assistant branch manager screamed, and that made me realise that something was amiss. I rushed to his room and found one box loaded with cash was missing,” said branch manager B.K. Naik.

Naik today took charge of branch. He said there had been no security guards posted at the bank for the past one year. The lone security guard left the job after becoming paralysed, and there was no replacement. This was informed to the regional office in March, but so far, no action has been taken in this regard.

Inspector in charge of Plant Site police station S.K. Biswal said: “I am not sure whether one or more persons are involved in this loot. We can’t rule out the possibility of an insider being part of the crime. It is too early for us to comment. We are examining the video footage,” he said.

Rourkela superintendent of police Anirudh Singh said he had asked all banks to have security guards.