M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Feb 5: Customers coming out of the banks with cash drawn are being watched by the criminals in Palamu. Poor level of alertness on the part of the customers with cash offers an opportunity to the loitering criminals to decamp with the cash.
SP Chandan Kumar Sinha said that Palamu police had busted a gang that used to throw itching powder on customers, making them uncomfortable for a few moments before snatching their cash. The SP identified the gang as the Korha gang of Katihar.
Officer-in-charge of the Rehla police station Nemdhari Rajak said he and his team recently busted a gang of criminals loitering in the premise and building of the bank posing as customers.
Rajak said the criminals used to identify careless customers coming out of the bank with cash. Then they stripped the customer of cash when they seemed inattentive.
Palamu police have appealed to the bank customers to be cautious enough about people around them. Some of the banks that have a high rush of customers are SBI, PNB, and the Central Bank of India.
Criminals get more active on pension withdrawal day or on days the government sends money digitally to the beneficiaries of various schemes. The most common mistake a customer does is to put his cash in the bike’s storage space and then forget about it, allowing loitering crooks to smash it open and flee with the cash in a flash.
Women put their money in their purses and are less careful with their purses while riding a bike or in an auto-rickshaw. Many women have been discovered crying because their purses and cash have been stolen.