By IANS,
Ranchi : Six armed criminals Monday looted Rs.380,000 from a bank in Simdega district in Jharkhand, but within hours the police manged to recover the cash though the robbers managed to escape.
According to the police, six men on three motorcycles came to Bank of India branch in Lakargarh, around 130 km from here, at 10.00 a.m. when the bank was about to open. Only two people – a sweeper and a bank employee – were present when the criminals barged into the bank and looted the cash at gunpoint.
In a swift action, the police located the criminals to a forested stretch in the neighboring Gumla district. After a brief gun fight, the criminals withdrew and escaped, and the police managed to recover the looted cash, two bikes and pistols from the site.
On Wednesday, suspected Maoist rebels hijacked a delivery van of the ICICI Bank and looted Rs.50 million and one kg gold from Tamar block on Ranchi-Jamshedpur national highway.
In Jharkhand, more than 55 bank robberies have taken place in the last five years.