Alok Mishra
Patna: Police on July 3, 2020, claimed to have cracked the case of dacoity at Anisabad Mor Branch of Punjab National Bank (PNB) at Patna on June 22, 2020, after arresting five members of a gang including its kingpin involved in the dacoity, seizing five countrymade pistols, three two-wheelers, Rs 33.13 lakh of the looted cash, and few gold ornaments.
Patna SSP Upendra Sharma said that Rs. 33.13 lakh of the looted cash besides some gold ornaments were seized from the possession of arrested criminals. It may be mentioned here that armed criminals had looted Rs. 52 lakh from Anisabad Mor based PNB Branch after making the security guard hostage at 3.30 pm on June 22.
Taking serious note of incident, Patna SSP Upendra Sharma had constituted a special police team headed by City SP (West). The special team collected information about different gangs involved in incidents of dacoity in and around Patna district. During investigation of the case, Patna SSP received information that one Aman Kumar alias Satyam Shukla alias Amit, a resident of Bank Colony, Jakkanpur, Patna, was involved in the bank dacoity. The SSP immediately informed special police team, which kept vigil on Shukla’s house.
As police team got information about gathering of some suspicious looking persons at Shukla’s house, it conducted raid at his house and arrested Shukla, Prafulla Kumar, Ganesh Kumar alias Nanki, Sonelal, and Harinarayan. Police also recovered five countrymade pistols, 16 live cartridges, Rs 22,64,080 cash besides a gold chain and some objectionable materials from there.
The SSP said that during interrogation, the arrested criminals revealed that they had been committing dacoities for long and were
also involved in dacoity at PNB Branch at Anisabad Mor. He said that dresses, bag, and three two-wheelers used in the crime had also been also recovered.
SSP Sharma said that on revelations made by arrested criminals, police recovered Rs 6 lakh cash and gold chain from house of Sonelal. He said that Rs. 3 lakh cash and gold chain were recovered from house of Harinarayan while Rs. 49,045 cash and intoxicants worth Rs 1 lakh were recovered from the rented house of Prafulla Kumar at Anandpuri. He said that Rs. 1 lakh cash was recovered from house of Ganesh Vishwakarma.
The SSP said that arrested criminals admitted their involvement in several much publicized cases including dacoity at the house of owner of a gas agency at Janki Niwas in SK Puri, loot at First Fry Toy Shop at Kankerbagh. This gang is also active in bordering districts, he
said, adding that they are being interrogated to collect information about other crimes.
The SSP said that despite being involved in crime, the arrested criminals were engaged in their respective professions. He said that Harinarayan is Black belt teacher while Aman Shukla is a teacher. Prafulla is a Compounder in Boring Road locality while Sonelal is shuttering labourer. Despite possessing huge cash, they used to take loans from others and were living simple lives, the SSP pointed out.
He said that this gang was also involved in criminal cases registered with different police stations at patna including Beur, Kankerbagh,
SK Puri, Buddha Colony, Patliputra Colony, Fatuha, Gardanibagh, and Jakkanpur.