Bhubaneswar, Sept. 29: A day after five armed dacoits fled with Rs 13 lakh in cash and gold ornaments weighing around one kilo from the UCO Bank at Rajmahal Square, police suspect that the members of the gang were also involved in a robbery at Korba district in Chhattisgarh on September 21.

In the Chhattisgarh incident, six armed persons had robbed around Rs 35 lakh in cash after locking up the bank officials in a similar modus operandi.

"The gang involved in the Korba bank loot entered as customers just after the bank was opened. The gang also took away the hard disc of the bank's closed-circuit television camera, apart from locking up the customers and bank employees at knifepoint. The bank in Korba also did not have any security guard," said a senior officer of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police.

The officer added that they were in touch with their counterparts in Korba to find out if the two incidents were linked.

The police have checked the footage of a CCTV camera installed at Sishu Bhavan Square and confirmed that the five looters had crossed the junction while escaping in a white car.

"Unfortunately, the car could be traced only up to Sishu Bhavan Square as we do not have CCTV cameras installed beyond that junction," said the officer.

The police are also going through the registers of various hotels in and around Rajmahal Square to find out whether any of the suspects stayed in the area before committing the robbery yesterday.

"We strongly suspect that the gang had visited the area several times before the incident. We are also trying to do a sketch of the accused with the help of bank officials," said the officer.

The police have decided to send an advisory to the banks to deploy private security guards.

"The banks will be asked to integrate the CCTV with Internet so that footage can be stored for few minutes even if the looters flee with the hard disc. Besides, we will also ask the banks to keep alarm switches at multiple locations," said the officer.