Armed miscreants loot Rs 13 lakh from LIC staff

Dhenkanal, May 28 (UNI) For the second time during last three months armed miscreants looted Rs.13 lakh cash and bank drafts worth over Rs.10 lakh from LIC staff near UCO bank here today.

Police said the incident took place around 1230 hours when one LIC sub staff and an assistant manager arrived at the bank by a car to deposit the money.

The miscreants hurled bombs,opened fire and snatched away the bag from the LIC sub staff while he was entering the bank.

In February last, in a similar case, miscreants robbed Rs.23 lakh cash from LIC staff in Bhadrak while they were going to deposit the money in the bank.

Two persons were killed and six others injured when the miscreants opened fire to disperse the crowd in a bid to flee from the busy market area after looting the money.

Later, the police could manage to arrest the gang involved in the looting from Jharkhand.

Dhenkanal LIC assistant manager S K Sahoo said he along with a sub staff Ashok Kumar Dehury had gone to the bank to deposit the money when the miscreants assaulted Dehury and snatched the bag containing cash,bank drafts and cheques.

Panicked Dehury ran away and took shelter in a nearby shop.

Another miscreant opened fire with his gun to scare the assistant manager who was then coming out of the vehicle.

Police said though the LIC staff were carrying huge cash with them they were not escorted by any security personnel.All the exit points in the district were immediately sealed by the police who sounded an alert to all the police stations and launched a combing operation to nab the miscreants.

UNI