Bank robbers’ gang busted in Bihar, two women among 8 arrested

PATNA: In a joint operation with special task force, the Vaishali, Samastipur and Muzaffarpur police busted a gang involved in three recent bank robberies, including loot of Rs 1.19 crore from the Jadwa branch of HDFC Bank in Hajipur, and arrested eight criminals, including two women, in the last 24 hours. The police also recovered Rs 93.19 lakh in cash from the possession of the arrested criminals.
While five criminals had committed the robbery at the HDFC Bank branch in Hajipur on June 10, three motorcycle-borne criminals had looted Rs 1.8 lakh from Bikram Bandepur branch of Canara Bank in Samastipur district on April 29. Seven criminals had looted Rs 7.75 lakh from State Bank of India’s Tajpur branch in Samastipur on May 19.
Vaishali SP Maneesh said the same gang was involved in all the three robberies. “Of Rs 1.19 crore looted from HDFC Bank, Rs 88 lakh has been recovered. The rest of the recovered amount was looted from the two Samastipur banks,” the SP added.
Maneesh said the arrested criminals were identified as Mohammad Arman, his wife Ajmeri Khatoon, Mohammad Khurshid, Mohammad Shaukat, Mohammad Aleem, Om Prakash, Rajeev Kumar alias Bulla and Asha Devi.
Maneesh said the criminals were arrested from different places in Vaishali, Samastipur and Muzaffarpur districts. “Arman is the leader of the gang. Clothes worn by criminals involved in loot at HDFC Bank, three motorcycles, two pistols used in the crime and 13 live cartridges were recovered,” the SP said, adding Rs 4 lakh was recovered from Ajmeri and Rs 50,000 each from Khurshid and Shaukat.
“On the basis of their confessions, the STF arrested Arman from Bhagwanpur bus stand in Vaishali and recovered Rs 25.67 lakh in cash, a pistol and six live cartridges from his possession,” he said.
The SP said Ajmeri’s confession led to arrest of Om from whom Rs 17.72 lakh was recovered. “Om was arrested from the house of his in-laws at Pahepur village under the Mufassil police station area in Samastipur. Aleem, on the other hand, was arrested from his maternal uncle’s house at Laxmipur village under the Mahua police station area in Vaishali. A sum of Rs 27 lakh was recovered from the house of Indrasen, another criminal, at Sahdullapur and Rs 17.8 lakh from Prabhat Kumar’s house at Keshopur Simri under the Sakra police station area in Muzaffarpur,” he said.
SHO of Town police station Subodh Kumar Singh said Asha Devi is mother of Indrasen. “Two members of the gang – Mukesh and Indrasen – are still at large,” he added.