Goons make abortive attempt to loot Rs 21 lakh, a bank staff sustains bullet injury

B N Singh Pappan

Saharsa : Two bike borne criminals tried to snatch a bag containing Rs 21 lakh cash from two IndusInd Bank  employees at the gate of Axis Bank, Marufganj Road branch, Saharsa, around 12.20 pm but when they failed to snatch the bag due to resistance from the two bank staff they opened fire on them in which Neeraj Singh, the Collection Executive, sustained bullet injury in chest. The criminals escaped waving their pistol. The IndusInd bank employees had gone to deposit the amount in Axs Bank as usual.

Neeraj was rushed to Saharsa Sadar hospital where the doctors referred him to Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital. DSP ( HQs), Saharsa, Ganpati Thakur, SDPO Bhai Subodh Kumar Biswas and Saharsa Sadar police station SHO Bhai Bharat reached the spot immediately and looked into the CCTV footage of Axis Bank to identify the two criminals.

SHO  Bhai Bharat said that IndusInd Bank Cashier Manoj Kumar Sharma and Collection Executive Neeraj Singh had gone to deposit the cash in Axis Bank on a bike from their bank on March 23. As soon as they reached near the Axis Bank, two bike borne criminals tried to snatch the bag containing cash from them but after they failed in their attempt they fired twice at the two bank employees from a countrymade pistol but the bullets missed the target, he said adding after that the criminals fired on them from a pistol hitting Neeraj in the chest and he fell on the ground.

The eyewitnesses said that seeing the armed criminals attacking the two IndusInd Bank employees, the Axis Bank guard put the shutters of the bank down though they kept knocking at the shutters. They said that had the Axix Bank guards not put the shutters down and instead challenged the criminls Neeraj would not have sustained bullet injury. The broad daylight incident has also exposed the functioning of Sadar police station. There has been spurt in crime in Saharsa town of late, they claimed. The SHO said that police were conducting raids to arrest the two criminals.