MAPUSA
In a daring broad daylight bank heist, five persons armed with pistols, knuckle dusters and knives attacked the manager and wounded the cashier, before decamping with cash of around Rs 15 lakh from Indian Overseas Bank at Verla-Canca, barely 2 kms from Mapusa city and the police station.
The dacoits fired in the air while trying to escape, but locals managed to catch two of them and after a sound thrashing, handed them over to the police. This is the fourth incident of money stolen from banks in Mapusa in the past two years.
Significantly, this is the seventh incident of money being stolen from banks and ATMs since June and cash of Rs 69.78 lakh has been stolen in these seven cases.
Sources in the bank told The Goan that the incident took place at about 4.30 pm when the bank was about to be shut. The dacoits entered the bank when the staff was in the process of loading the ATM with cash.
When the cashier and the manager refused to cooperate, one of the dacoits attacked the cashier, Govind Narvekar, with a knuckle duster, injuring him on his forehead.
Two others caught hold of the bank manager and tried to strangulate him, the bank source informed.
According to bank staff, the dacoits damaged the bank's CCTV cameras, computers and telephones, while also snatching the mobile phones of the staff in a bid to prevent the incident being captured on camera or attempts to alert others.
Locals informed that the dacoits also decamped with gold ornaments from customers and the staff in the bank. But police were unable to confirm it.
The dacoits were caught off guard after a daring lady sweeper ran out of the bank and raised an alarm, which instantly attracted the attention of the passerby.
Seeing locals gathering in large numbers, the dacoits made a disparate bid to escape and in the process fired in the air. One of the bullets hit the back windscreen of a parked car parked nearby which was shattered.
While the dacoits ran in different direction in bid to escape, two of them were caught by the locals in the melee and gave them a sound thrashing.
One of the accused was seriously injured after being beaten by the public and was admitted at North Goa District Hospital, Mapusa.
Police sources informed that all the five accused were non-Goans and appeared to be from Bihar. They were interacting among themselves in Hindi.
"As of now we know that five persons were involved in the dacoity. There is a possibility there could be more people involved. Two persons who were caught by locals have been arrested so far," Mapusa PI Tushar Lotlikar said.
The accused have been identified as Vijaykumar Das (25) and Dhirajkumar Das (25).
The PI also informed that around Rs 15 lakh was robbed from the cashier.
Speaking to reporters, SP Chandan Chaudhary said the dacoits were staying in a hotel near Mapusa bus KTC stand where they had booked two rooms. "During the interrogation, we have found out this gang was involved in a similar dacoity in a bank at Patna-Bihar," she added.
"One of the dacoits was wearing a helmet, hinting that the dacoits had come on motorcycles at the site. We have sent police teams to Margao, Tivim, Vasco and other railway stations to trace the dacoits and we also alerted bus stands in the State and police stations at the State borders," informed SP Chaudhary.
SP Chaudhary further said no security guard was deployed in the bank nor were there security alarms in the bank. "This was carried out in a well planned manner," she added.
Among those who visited the bank to take stock of the incident included Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo, DGP Muktesh Chandar, IGP Jaspal Singh, North Goa SP Chaudhary, DySP Serafin Dias, Mapusa PI Tushar Lotlikar, Anjuna PI Chetan Patil and Verla-Canca Sarpanch Milton Marques.
Within the last two years, this is the second bank robbery in the jurisdiction of Mapusa Police.
It may be recalled burglars had managed to decamp with around Rs 20 lakh from Bank of India, located in the heart of the city some two years back. Some robbers were identified, but the stolen money has not been recovered till date.
In June this year, cash of Rs 58,000 was stolen from ATMs of two different private banks located within a distance of 100 metres from each other in Mapusa. While two unknown persons entered into the ATM of TJSB Bank opposite Mapusa Police Station and took away cash of Rs 9,500 from the ATM, two persons entered the ATM of G P Parsik Sahakari Bank the next day and took away cash of Rs 48,000 from the ATM.
