PATNA: In a daring incident, unidentified bike-borne armed criminals shot at a private armed guard and looted at least Rs 9 lakh while it was being loaded at an ATM kiosk of ICICI bank at Alpana market in Patliputra colony in the state capital in broad daylight on Friday.
The injured guard has been identified as Lal Saheb Singh who is native of Ara in Bhojpur. His condition was reported to be critical. The double barrel gun of the guard was also looted by the criminals, eyewitnesses said.
The loot amount could have been much more as there were Rs 54 lakh lying inside the cash van which had reached the spot for loading cash in the ATM kiosk.
The loot took place at around 1.30pm. The crime spot, falling under Shreekrishna Puri police station area, is a posh and busy market area with hundreds of business establishments and houses of retired and serving bureaucrats.
Huge numbers of vehicles cross from the narrow main road in front of the kiosk where criminals successfully dared to commit the loot.
Manoj Kumar, an eye-witness, told TOI at the spot that a cash van stopped in front of the kiosk from which the guard came out and took position in front of the entrance of the kiosk.
“Another person came out from the cash van with a bag and entered inside the ATM kiosk. Meanwhile a criminal came from behind the van and clandestinely sneaked behind the guard. He tried to threaten him but the guard pulled his gun on him after which the criminal opened fire,” Kumar said.
He said that the criminal then pointed his pistol on the cash van staff inside the kiosk and snatched the bag containing money from him.
“He fled on spot on spot. Other shopkeepers said that two criminals on a bike were waiting for him just a few feet ahead of the spot. He boarded the bike and fled,” he said.
Kumar said that the criminals had also looted the guard’s firearm from the spot but threw it somewhere ahead which was later recovered by police. He said the injured guard was immediately rushed to a nearby private hospital for treatment in the same cash van by his colleagues.
Looking at the gravity of the incident, City SP (central) Vinay Tiwari and SHOs of at least four neighbouring police stations rushed to the spot.
Tiwari after preliminary quizzing of the cash van employees at the hospital, told this newspaper that the criminals were following the cash van.
“It had started from the private firm’s office at Kankarbagh. Van staff had deposited money at several ATM kiosks on the way and several more were to be replenished even after the ICICI ATM kiosk,” he said.
SP said that prima facie it seems that the criminals only had the intention to loot the money which was being loaded in the kiosk after taking out from the cash van.
“Else there was Rs 54 lakh lying that time inside the van which was for replenishing several other ATMs,” he said. SP Tiwari said that raids were going on to nab the criminals.