TURA: In a daring robbery at the heart of Tura town, a criminal gang snatched away twenty-five lakh rupees from a bank employee’s vehicle after he had left the main State Bank of India branch near DC office here, and fled only to be arrested by Tura police from Phulbari river while attempting to flee towards Dhubri in Assam on Tuesday morning.
The incident occurred around 11:15 A.M, after the employee of the Gambegre SBI branch had withdrawn the money from the main branch located near the DC park. The area houses the offices of the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police.
The bank employee was to proceed to Gambegre branch with the money in his car (ML-08 B 2526) when he found his vehicle had a flat tyre outside the main post office, barely 100 meters from the main SBI branch.
Keeping the money inside the vehicle, the employee went ahead with changing the tyre. While changing the tyre, the bank employee suddenly noticed that the two bags containing the money were missing from inside his vehicle.
Shockingly, the employee tasked with withdrawing the money from the SBI had failed to follow standard operating procedures when it came to withdrawing and transporting large sums of money. He allegedly did not have any security personnel with him.
He quickly alerted the police and information soon began to flow in about two persons on a black Bajaj Pulsar bike spotted heading towards Super market road carrying two bags similar in description to the missing money bags.
Tura police quickly swung into action and set up road blocks and vehicle checking at all entry and exit points of the town.
“We also alerted all police stations in nearby state of Assam and out technical team was also pressed into service,” said district SP Dr MGR Kumar.
The search led police to the plain belt town of Phulbari where they found that the two robbers had boarded an open boat (Launch) on the Jinjiram river heading out in the direction of Dhubri town in Assam.
The boat was around 2 kms into its journey on the river when the boatman was alerted by police and ordered to stop the engine. A police team soon boarded the launch and nabbed both the robbers and seized the entire amount of Rs 25 lakh including the motorcycle (AS01DE-9083) used in the crime.
One of the arrested robbers has been identified as Anurag Singh (27) of Islampur in West Bengal while the other is a juvenile.
Police are probing further to ascertain the other members of the gang to establish their modus operandi.
The team work of the West Garo Hills police in quickly breaking the case has been hailed by the banking fraternity with the AGM of the SBI issuing a congratulatory note to the police.