RANCHI: In a daredevil act, daylight robbery took place at Dimna Chowk Branch of Bank of India in Jamshedpur, where masked criminals posing as CBI officers asked people to deposit their mobile phones and looted the bank on gunpoint taking away nearly Rs 35 lakh along with them. The robbers entered the bank at around 11 am as common people and looted the cash in the name of the CBI raid and ran away locking others inside the bank.
People inside the bank could not understand whether it is really a raid or the bank is being looted despite the fact that the bank manager was also there. “As soon as I entered into the ban, one person standing beside me asked to submit my mobile phone. When we objected, he told us that a raid is being conducted by CBI, further saying that it will be returned back after the raid gets completed,” said an eyewitness Prasenjeet Kumar. When the number of people increased inside the bank, they asked everyone to sit down on the floor, he added.
“When objected, the masked criminals took out their guns and forced everyone to sit on the floor,” said a customer Prasenjit Kumar. They were a total of four in number, he added. Prasenjeet informed that the criminals executed the robbery in such alacrity that none of the bank officials could do anything to alert the police. The management of the branch had informed the police only after the robbers had fled the
spot.
Another eyewitness said that they also threatened to open fire on them if they did not sit silently. “As we opposed, they threatened to open fire. Then we realized that something was wrong. Later, we saw them leaving with cash inside their bag. Before leaving, they locked the main gate and dropped all mobile phones there,” said another eyewitness Sonu.
Meanwhile, Police is not trying to identify the perpetrators by scanning the CCTV footage obtained from there. “Some of the masked criminals have looted the Ulidih branch of Bank of India in Jamshedpur. They took everyone’s mobile phone in their possession and locked people inside the bank from outside and ran away with nearly 35 lakh cash with them,” said Jamshedpur SSP Prabhat Kumar. CCTV footage is being scanned to identify the criminals, he added.