From Tamil Nadu to Bihar: A tale of great bank robbery

Amateur robber

Laxmanan, a native of Tiruchirapalli near Chennai, is cooling his heels behind the bars and regretting why he befriended the three persons – Candy, Ravi and Krishna – on a Patna-bound train.

It all happened when the vehicle of Laxmanan, a driver, met with an accident near Chennai.

Scripting in  train

To escape the police dragnet, he boarded a Patna-bound train where he met three of his neighbours – Candy, Ravi and Krishna.

Two of them originally hailed from Bihar. On the way to Patna, it was contrived to commit a bank robbery.

But given the tight security arrangement in the state capital, it was decided to target a bank in Hajipur, 25 km north of Patna.

After initial survey, the foursome opted for Kachahari branch of Canara Bank at Hajipur.
Targeted hamlet Posing as bonafide customers, they entered the bank when there was no rush in the early morning hours.

Incidentally, the manager of the bank had just taken out the cashbox from the chest and put it on the table.

“After getting signal from Candy, I pounced on the box and fled before an alarm was raised.

While fleeing with the box containing Rs 11.21 lakh, I was caught by some locals near Gandhi Chowk, thrashed mercilessly and handed over to the Hajipur police,” Laxmanan reportedly told his interrogators, who had a tough time due to the language problem.

 Incidentally, all his three colleagues managed to give the police a slip. Since Laxmanan was speaking only in Tamil, the local police had difficulty while conversing.

Eventually, a local priest, who originally hailed from Andhra Pradesh, was called to assist the cops. The priest translated Laxmanan’s version and informed the police that as per the plan, the rest three absconders were supposed to board the train from Patna (to Chennai) the same day.

A special team of Hajipur police was rushed to Patna, but the robbers could not be apprehended. “We are in touch with Tamil Nadu police to trace and arrest the three other accused besides this man. Besides, we will send a police team to Chennai to verify the antecedents of Laxmanan,” said Vaishali SP, SM Jain.