Banaskantha villagers attack bank over cash shortage

PALANPUR/AHMEDABAD: Violence broke out outside a nationalised bank where people had gathered to withdraw cash from their accounts in Khimana village of Shirohi taluka of Banaskantha on Saturday.
Nearly half-a-dozen villagers and two policemen were injured after angry account holders pelted stones at the branch of Dena bank alleging that it refused to give money citing cash limit.Police resorted to lathicharge to control the crowd. They also lodged about five tear gas shells after the mob started ransacking the bank and damaged it properties.
“The bank officials had issued some 300 tokens yesterday and the token holders had come to collect the cash. However, account holders started creating ruckus outside the bank branch. They said that they have not been able to get cash since last three days,” said Banaskantha Dy SP Umesh Patel.
“During stone pelting at least two police officials received minor injuries. As a precautionary measure, the bank was locked from outside so that no bank officials were hurt,” Patel said.
An FIR was later lodged against an unidentified crowd with the Shirohi taluka police station, said investigating officer MN Desai.
Jayanti Tarak, sarpanch of Khoda village near Khimana village, who was present at the bank, said that people were agitated because they were not getting cash since three days.
In a similar kind of incident, angry account holders locked the branch of Bank of India at Modhwada village in Porbandar district after complaining that the bank refused to give them money despite standing in queue for hours. Later police reached the village and brought the situation under control, officials of Porbandar police control room said.
Agitated account holders at Dhrol town and nearby villages of Jamnagar district resorted to blocking of a state highway for some minutes disrupting traffic alleging that banks in their area were not giving them money.