Patna: English teacher among five held in PNB loot case

PATNA: An English tutor and a black belt karate trainer had masterminded the bank dacoity at Anisabad in Patna on June 22.
The duo and three others were arrested from Bank Colony under Jakkanpur police station in the city on Friday. They are in their late 20s. Police recovered Rs33.13 lakh out of the Rs52.33 lakh looted from the Anisabad branch of Punjab National Bank by over half a dozen criminals by taking the bank employees and customers hostage at gunpoint.
They were identified as Aman Kumar alias Satyam Shukla, the tutor, Hari Narayan (karate trainer), mechanic Sone Lal, compounder Praffulla Kumar, who works at a clinic on Boring Road and one Ganesh Kumar.
Police also recovered from their possession five pistols, including a semi-automatic one, 16 live cartridges, three two-wheelers, including the two used in the crime, liquor bottles purchased to sell in the market and gold jewellery worth Rs4 lakh looted in February this year. Three criminals were still evading arrest.
The arrested criminals told the police that they had actually looted Rs46 lakh, and not Rs52.33 lakh as mentioned by the bank manager in the FIR.
Patna SSP Upendra Kumar Sharma said Aman, Hari and Sone knew each other and had been planning the loot since December last year. “Aman teaches English at a coaching institute in Anisabad. He lived at a rented accommodation in Bank Colony. He was well known and used to take classes at several institutes in Patna as well as in Muzaffarpur. The other four had come to meet Aman when they were nabbed on the basis of human surveillance for the last several days,” he said, adding it was Aman who had first planned the bank loot as it was on way to his residence.
“Aman, Hari and Sone also confessed that they had looted a gas agency in SK Puri in 2015 and Rs1.8 lakh along with gold jewellery worth around Rs4 lakh from First Cry showroom in Kankarbagh on February 23 this year,” the SSP said.
The SSP said none of them had been booked in any case earlier. That is why it was difficult for the police to track them. “We believe Aman, Hari and Sone are involved in several other loots but were successful in evading the police’s radar. It is impossible that they dared loot a bank just after committing two crimes,” he said.
The SSP said Aman’s share was Rs25 lakh of which he spent Rs2 lakh, including on renting a new flat for his family in Bank Colony. Hari got Rs3 lakh and Sone Rs7 lakh of which he gave Rs1 lakh to his sister. Prafulla had got Rs2 lakh as his share of which Rs50,000 was recovered. Ganesh had received Rs2 lakh of which he spent Rs1 lakh on buying liquor to sell it at a higher price.
“The three criminals evading arrest have Rs10 lakh distributed among themselves. Those arrested say they looted only Rs46 lakh. But we assume that Rs52.33 lakh was looted and the bank manager has been asked to get amount verified once again,” the SSP said.