Rs1.58cr looted from 10 bank branches in 6 months

Patna: The Bihar police seems to have ceased to be a deterrent agency with dacoits striking at ten different bank branches and decamping with Rs 1.58 crore, including Rs 21.7 lakh from a State Bank of India branch in Muzaffarpur on Wednesday, during the six months since November last year.
Seven dacoits looted Rs 42.77 lakh from the Canara Bank branch at Sohsarai in Nalanda on November 28, but police have so far failed to recover the money."We have arrested four hardened criminals - Shiv Prasad Bind alias Kunal alias Mahesh Bind (55), Shailendra Kumar alias Deepak alias Sanjay Singh alias Sunil Mukherjee (41), Shashi Paswan (21) and Pramod Bind (25) in connection with the bank heist," Sohsarai police station SHO J P Yadav said.
He said Shiv and Shailendra were involved in cases of bank loot in Kolkata, Jaipur and Agra and their gang members were spread across the country.
Police have also arrested five other alleged dacoits in connection with the incidents of loot in the Canara Bank and North Bihar Gramin Bank branches in Vaishali district on November 30 and December 1 respectively. While a sum of Rs 15 lakh was looted from Canara Bank, Rs 2.95 lakh was looted from Gramin Bank. Garaul police station SHO Dilip Kumar said police recovered Rs 1.23 lakh of the looted amount on December 6 from one Vicky who was arrested from Pirapur in Vaishali. The gang leader, Virendra Sada, is accused in more than 22 incidents of loot in Samsatipur, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur and Begusarai districts, he said.
In another incident, dacoits looted Rs 5 lakh from the Harsidhi (Nalanda) branch of North Bihar Gramin Bank on December 1. Harsidhi police station SHO Raju Kumar said seven of the nine criminals involved in the crime had been put behind bars. "We have recovered Rs 1.4 lakh and seized six firearms from them," he said.
However, the Patna police have failed to recover the Rs 1.03 lakh looted from the Bank of Baroda's Rupaspur branch by four youngsters on January 20 this year. The four, who worked on daily wages in the neighbourhood, had in fact looted Rs 1.51 lakh, but abandoned bundles amounting to Rs 48,000 while fleeing.
One Ajeet Kumar surrendered in a court in this connection while gang leader Tausif Khan is absconding, Rupaspur police station SHO Vinod Kumar said.
The Siwan police have recovered coins amounting to Rs 15,000 which were dropped by eight dacoits while fleeing after looting Rs 9.96 lakh from the Punjab National Bank's branch at Gautam Buddha Nagar in the district on March 1. SHO Subodh Kumar said six dacoits, including gang leader Bind Awadhiya (45), have been nabbed.
Criminals looted Rs 47 lakh from an Axis Bank branch in Muzaffarpur on April 27. Seven criminals have been arrested and around Rs 10 lakh recovered by police in this connection.