Araria, 27th May 2022: Six armed miscreants stormed one of the Bank of India branches in Araria on early Friday morning. The miscreants looted Rs 37 lakh and gold worth Rs 15 lakh.

Police said a gang of armed robbers carried out the crime after injuring bank cashier Sitesh Ranjan and the branch manager when both were opposing this incident. This is the sixth incident of robbery in Bihar within two and a half months.

Police are yet to trace the whereabouts of the robbers and their search is on. The incident took place at 9.40 am, barely 250 meters from the SP’s residence at ADB Chowk under Town police station. Police said a gang of at least six armed men barged into the branch located on the first floor on the busiest bus stand road and took everyone, including branch manager Akhilesh Kumar, hostage at gunpoint.

Police also said that when the scavengers were cleaning the bank premises, armed dacoits entered the branch. The branch manager said that he is locked in the bathroom while the main door of the branch is also locked from inside. The miscreants also broke the gun of the bank guard and snatched six live cartridges from him.

Masked miscreants reached the spot in their vehicles and six of them entered the bank premises posing as customers. The robbers of the bank started pressurizing the cashier of the branch to give the key to open the locked iron safe. He only focused on the money kept in the safe and ran away after robbing it.

Police said that it took hardly 10 to 12 minutes for the robbers to rob the bank and then they fled. Before taking the cash, the criminals took out the DVR of the CCTV. Araria SP Ashok Kumar Singh said that a team of FSL reached the spot and probed the incident. “The border of the district was sealed immediately after the information of the robbery was received. Intensive raids are being conducted to arrest the suspects involved in the incident. The SP said that the police team is trying to identify the robbers through the CCTV footage installed near the branch.

Previous incidents of theft

On April 13, armed robbers escaped from the Siwan branch of Uttar Bihar Gramin Bank (NBGB) with around Rs.26 lakh.

 On 7 April, armed robbers attacked a branch of Punjab National Bank (PNB) in Darbhanga and looted around Rs.50 lakh at gunpoint.

On March 10, armed robbers escaped from the Khagaria branch of Bandhan Bank with around Rs.42 lakhs.

On March 9, unidentified robbers targeted the Badgaon branch of South Bihar Gramin Bank in Nalanda and looted Rs.8 lakh. During this, he beat up the employees who were opposing the loot.

On 7 March, miscreants looted Rs 13 lakh from SBGB’s Bibiganj branch in Bhojpur district.