Two held for Siliguri bank heist

TT, Siliguri, May 8: Two persons were arrested from Jharkhand and South Dinajpur late last night for their involvement in the robbery at the Central Bank of India's Bagdogra branch on Wednesday and cash worth over Rs 12 lakh was recovered from them.

The duo were produced in a court today and remanded in police custody for 14 days.

Police sources said the arrested youths, Kamal Hassan, a resident of Rajmahal, Jharkhand, and Uttam Hazra from Banshihari in South Dinajpur district.

After the robbery, police had collected CCTV footage from the bank and raided some hotels in Bagdogra. During investigation the police collected some evidence from hotel registers that helped them track the robbers. A police team from Bagdogra visited South Dinajpur and Jharkhand.

"First, Kamal was arrested from Rajmahal and after interrogating him, Hazra was picked up. We will try to find out if more people were involved in the burglary. Preliminary investigation suggests Hasan, 24, and Hazra, 21, were involved in many cases of loot and burglary in Jharkhand, Odisha and Malda," a source said.

Susanta Neogi, the assistant public prosecutor in the additional chief judicial magistrate court here, said: "Police recovered Rs 12.7 lakh from Kamal and a gold bangle and Rs 7,400 from Hazra. ACJM Debanjan Ghosh has remanded them in police custody for 14 days. They will be produced in court again on May 22."

Sixteen lockers at the bank's Bagdogra branch, 15km from here, were broken during the robbery.