In what could be the largest theft in history in Odisha, four armed criminals looted 12 million rupees of cash and jewelry from the branch of IIFL Finance, a major non-bank finance company, on Thursday morning. in the busy town of Cuttack.
Police officers said four criminals in masks and helmets arrived at the Nayasarak branch of IIFL Finance and entered its premises threatening the lone security guard at gunpoint. The malefactors, who spoke in Hindi and hated, surrounded the branch manager and the rest of the staff in a bathroom and took the locker keys from him.
“Except for 2-3 packages of gold, the thieves took almost all the gold that would be around Rs 12 crore. The incident happened in just 10 minutes, ”said Satya Pradhan, manager of the branch. Pradhan said the branch’s CCTV camera was not working when the theft occurred. IIFL Finance Limited is a leading non-bank finance company providing gold loans, business loans including property loans and microfinance.
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Cuttack Police Deputy Commissioner Prateek Singh said special teams have been formed to catch the thieves. The city’s borders were sealed and police officers from neighboring Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Dhenkanal and Kendrapara were alerted.
The theft is likely to be embarrassing to the Naveen Patnaik government, as it comes one day before the winter session of the Odisha Assembly. There have been a number of armed robberies of banks and ATMs this year in the state.
Last month, the police commissioner had advised banks and financial institutions to improve security systems at branches and ATMs.
In February this year, the Ludhiana branch of the IIFL also saw a similar robbery when four armed individuals left with 30 kilograms of gold worth Rs 13 crore and Rs 3.5 lakh in cash.
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