On Saturday, two youths looted Rs 50 lakh from HDFC Bank in Punjab's Tarn Taran district. The incident took place around 3 pm in the private sector HDFC Bank branch located on Tarn Taran-Jandiala Road. Both the robbers came and after taking the bank staff at gun point, fled with the money within a few minutes. On getting information about the incident, top police officers reached the spot. Tarn Taran SSP Harvinder Singh Virk himself also reached the spot.
According to the information received, only the staff members were present inside the bank at the time of the incident. Police officials who reached the spot started scanning the footage of the closed circuit (CC) cameras installed inside the bank. Footage of CCTV cameras installed in the surrounding area is also being seen so that the route of the robbers can be traced.
Tarn Taran SSP Harvinder Singh Virk said that two youths entered the bank at 3.17 pm on Saturday. Both of them covered their faces and were carrying weapons in their hands. One of the robbers was wearing a police uniform. After seeing the CCTV footage of the bank, this uniform looks like that of a constable or head constable rank employee.
According to the SSP, the staff has told that as soon as they entered the bank, both the robbers took the staff to the gun point. After withdrawing the money kept in the drawer of the cash counter, the robbers opened the strong room by threatening to shoot the bank staff and fled with the cash kept there. According to bank employees, both the robbers took away around Rs 50 lakh.
The SSP said that the police have seized the CCTV footage of the bank. After watching the footage, initial clues have been found on the basis of which further investigation is being done. Both the robbers will be caught very soon. It is also being investigated whether apart from the two robbers, a third or bank staff is also involved in this incident.
The police is taking information from the bank employees about the appearance, dress and colloquial manner of the robbers so that it can be known whether it is the work of some local gang or was there any outsider involved in this incident? However, both the robbers had covered their faces, so the bank staff could not tell anything specific about the appearance.
In the branch of HDFC Bank where the robbery took place, there is a private security guard posted on behalf of the bank management, but he neither has any weapon nor sticks for security. The SSP of Tarn Taran said that before Corona, private security guards posted in banks used to have weapons, but now the security personnel who have been deployed, none of them have arms.
High alert has been declared in entire Punjab after grenade attack on Army Cantt gate in Pathankot two weeks ago and 1 kg RDX, tiffin bomb and hand grenade within a week in Gurdaspur. Despite this, 50 lakh rupees were looted from the bank in Tarn Taran.
The police station is just 200 meters away from the HDFC Bank branch on Tarn Taran-Jandiala road where the robbery took place. Not only this, about 100 meters away from this branch of the bank is the house of Congress MLA from Tarn Taran, Dr. Dharamveer Agnihotri. Due to the presence of police station and local MLA's kothi, there is always police stationed in this area. Despite this, the robbers managed to escape after robbing the bank.
The Tarn Taran-Jandiala road on which the robbers robbed the bank is the main road of the city. The area remains crowded throughout the day. CCTV cameras have been installed at the intersections falling on both sides of the bank branch. There is a bus stand on this road on one side and there are CCTV cameras installed there too. The chowk, which is just 500 yards away from the bank, has police stationed throughout the day and CCTV cameras are installed. But alas, the CCTV cameras installed at most of the intersections of Tarn Taran city have been lying defunct for a long time.
Neither the police-administration nor the district administration took any step to get the CCTV cameras damaged in the city fixed. If the CCTV cameras were in working then the information about the route of the robbers could have been easily obtained. Now the police have depended on the footage of CCTV cameras installed by the respective shop owner outside the shops built on this road.
