Angul: In broad daylight robberies, miscreants looted cash & gold worth over Rs 25 lakh from two separate banks in Angul and Nayagarh districts today.
Six men armed with country-made pistols and other weapons looted Rs 20 lakh from an Andhra Bank branch in Angul.
Posing as customers, unidentified miscreants entered the bank and after taking customers as well as bank officials hostage, they looted cash and other jewellery stashed in the strong room of the bank.
The incident occurred at around 10:30 AM, barely few minutes after the bank opened for today.
Sources said, the goons were communicating in Hindi and Bengali & had locked all the customers in a room after snatching their mobile phones.
"There were six persons in the bank and they overpowered me and locked others in a room. They took away our mobile phones and looted the bank at gun point," said Biswajit Pradhan, an eye-witness.
Dolly, another eye-witness said, "The miscreants had brought bags and were communicating in Hindi and Bengali."
All the customers, who were locked inside a room, were rescued by a police team later. It is suspected that the robbers had conducted a recce of the bank prior to the dacoity as they were aware of the strong room and other key locations.
Angul SP Mitrabhanu Mohapatra informed that already a team is working on the case.
"We have got some clues and a detailed scientific investigation will be conducted," said Mohapatra.
Mohapatra said that police of neighbouring districts have been alerted and we hope to crack the case soon.
Similarly, in Nayagarh today, miscreants looted gold weighing 200 grams & valued over Rs 5 lakh from Sarangadharpur Gramya bank.