Ahmedabad: Alert bank manager foils robbery attempt

AHMEDABAD: Presence of mind shown by a woman, who works as manager of the SBI Bank in Vavol village of Gandhinagar , foiled a bank robbery attempt as she pressed the alarm when three armed robbers tried to loot the bank. The robbers had to flee to evade arrest.

The incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon when the bank manager , Prnali Pattani (38), a resident of Vejalpur, was working at the bank along with her two other colleagues.

“At around 1.30pm, three masked men, aged around 25, rushed inside the bank. Two of them pulled out a pistol but before they could do anything, I pressed the alarm which informed the police about the robbery bid. Hearing the alarm, one of the robbers fired at my cabin,” said Pattani, who has been working in the bank for the past six years.

Police officials said that they have recovered a bullet which had hit a cupboard in the bank and nearly hit the woman. “As I informed the police through the alarm, the men fled from the bank without looting anything,” said Patni.

“Due to this woman’s alertness, neither anyone suffered any injury nor anything was looted from the bank,” said a police official.

The woman later filed a complaint with Sector-7 police of Gandhinagar under robbery and arms acts. Inspector Dharmendra Chaudhari of Sector-7 police has been handed over the investigation.

This is the second case in a month where robbers had barged into a bank in Gandhinagar. A team of FSL was also called at the bank to investigate further.

Police officials said that there is probability of the bullet being fired from a country-made revolver.

“Same kind of weapon was used in a robbery at a bank in Chhatral GIDC on February 16 where three men had robbed rupees 48 lakh, snatched gold chain of an employee and shot in the leg of a staffer,” the official added.