2 policemen found dead inside Central Bank

Varanasi, July 17 (UNI) Two policemen were today found dead under mysterious circumstances inside a nationalised bank in Chowk area here.

SSP Ashutosh Pandey said Hansraj Saroj and Chote Lal Rai were found dead in the dark room near the strong room of the Central Bank's Chowk Branch.

Meanwhile, two other guards Prabhashankar Pathak and Ramesh Pandey deployed for the bank's security have been arrested in this connection.

The branch is located in the yellow-zone of the three-tier security of the highly sensitive Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanwapi complex.

Yellow zone is the second most sensitive zone after red zone.

Branch senior manager Kishore Sah said when the bank staff arrived this morning, in charge of the four police guards deployed for security Prabhashankar Pathak informed the keys of the bank doors were missing.

The locks were opened by a mechanic and the two bodies found.

The SSP further said Hansraj and Chote Lal were missing for the last 48 hrs. The bodies, which bore gunshot wounds, have been sent for post-mortem.

While Hansraj belonged to Pratapgarh district, Chote Lal hailed from neighbouring Ghazipur district.

The Chowk police station is situated within a short distance of the branch and five of the special 'shrawan' police outposts created as part of stepped up security at the Gyanwapi complex are located around the bank.

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