Rs 34 lakh looted from Sasaram bank

SASARAM: Criminals kidnapped three Bank of India employees, including an armed guard, and looted Rs 34 lakh in cash of the Sasaram branch of the bank in broad daylight on Tuesday.
The criminals decamped with the Ambassador car in which the bank employees were carrying the cash in an iron box. The cash was being taken to Patna for being deposited in the bank’s currency chest.After half an hour, the abducted bank employees were released by the criminals. The incident took place at the Zakhani bridge, a crime-prone area under the Nokha police station of Rohtas district.
An FIR has been lodged with the Nokha police station in this connection.
The incident has created an acute sense of insecurity among the bank authorities in the district. During the last one year, lakhs of rupees have been looted in more than a dozen bank robberies taking place in the district. But the police have failed to recover even a single paisa of the looted money.
Sources said in the district, only the Punjab National Bank has its own currency chest here. So the surplus cash of different branches of other banks in the district is deposited in their respective currency chests either in Patna or in Gaya.
When the Ambassador in which the three Bank of India employees were travelling reached near the Zakhani bridge, about half a dozen criminals in a Maruti Zen overtook the car and overpowered the employees, including the armed guard, at gun point. The criminals blindfolded the employees and kidnapped them. After half an hour, the employees along with the Ambassador’s driver were released at a lonely place. The criminals decamped with the car carrying the cash, the sources said.
Due to the spurt in robberies in rural bank branches of the district, several such branches have reportedly been shifted to urban areas.