12 minutes of terror..

Kolkata: An armed gang of six looted Rs 15 lakh from a branch of Oriental Bank of Commerce at Madhyamgram on Friday after beating up the staff. The modus operandi and the savage thrashing have led police to suspect that it was the same gang that looted Rs 25 lakh from a Baguiati bank in January and nearly suffocated a dozen employees and customers by locking them up in a vault. This time, too, the dacoits herded the staff into the vault, but unlike the Baguiati incident, did not lock it. Around 1.45 pm on Friday, the gang arrived on two bikes and ran up to the first-floor branch of the bank on Sodepur Road. The securityman was hit in the head with a revolver butt — just as in the Baguiati case. A robber stood guard at the gate while the others barged in and held 14 customers and several employees at gunpoint. They made everybody — including an elderly woman — lie face down on the floor, and snatched their mobile phones. With a gun to his head, the manager was forced to open the vault. The robbers mopped up Rs 15 lakh, locked customers in a toilet, forced the staff into the vault and closed it. The entire operation took just 12 minutes. The gang split into two groups — three fled towards Madhyamgram’s Debigarh and three others towards Madhyamgram Chowmatha on Jessore Road. With the vault not locked from outside, the bank staff managed to come out and rescue the customers from the toilet. Rupa Roy, a customer caught in the robbery, said: “They were threatening to shoot us.” Bank staff Animesh Mondal said the gang was very brutal. “They pushed me so hard I fell on the floor. One of them held a gun to the manager’s head,” he said. Barasat SDPO Joy Biswas said Friday’s dacoity had striking similarities with the one at Baguiati. “We suspect the same gang is involved,” he said. The bank staff said the criminals spoke in Hindi, were aged 22-25 years, and were rather cocky — going around unmasked, with guns tucked under the belt. They seemed to have cased out the bank earlier. Like the Baguiati bank, this one, too, did not have CCTVs. Bank manager Asit Kumar Langol said the incident occurred so suddenly that the staff forgot to trigger the alarm. “Besides, they were also scared that the goons would shoot if anyone tried to activate the system,” he said