Agartala: Police have launched an investigation into the robbery of over Rs three lakh of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) fund from rural business correspondents (BC) of Tripura Gramin Bank on Tuesday.
Armed miscreants had injured a BC and looted biometric ATM machine, one laptop, some documents and Rs 3,24,600 when two BCs were going to Tainani, a remote tribal village in South Tripura, for making MNREGA payment.
Police said the victims were identified as Samrat Bhowmik (25) and Abhik Dey (30). Two people had stopped their motor bike and fired at the riders from a country made gun injuring Bhowmik.
He was later shifted to Udaipur district hospital where he was stated to be out of danger.
Tripura Gramin Bank and Tripura State Cooperative Bank had introduced biometric smart card and infrastructure solution to enable people operate an extended Rural banking Branch in each village and Panchayat as per RBI guidelines for the BC model.
Meanwhile, police registered a case against a village council secretary in North Tripura for allegedly embezzling NREGA fund of Rs 11 lakh over past few months. He is absconding. (UNI)