Robbery bid foiled at finance firm as staffer raises alarm

An attempt by three armed men to rob a finance firm was foiled by an alert staffer raising an alarm on Tuesday afternoon.

According to the police, at around 12.15 pm, three men arrived on two bikes and barged into India Infoline Finance Limited located on the first floor of a building at RPC Layout in Vijayanagar.

Two of them were wearing helmets and one a balaclava. They were dressed in khakhi and communicated in sign language. One of them put a gun to the security guard’s head and instructed him to remain quiet. The other two entered the bank and tried to shove the employees and customers into a room.

A woman staffer, who had gone to the toilet on the ground floor, returned to the first flour and saw the men in action. She raised an alarm and rushed out to the road screaming. Frightened, the three men took to their heels and fled the spot on their bikes.
The employees then alerted the police. Labhuram, DCP, West, who visited the spot, said the miscreants had attempted to loot the finance firm in the afternoon assuming that there wouldn’t be many customers.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the miscreants were holding a weapon wrapped in a newspaper, besides a gun. Their faces were not visible. CCTV footage obtained from the bank is being examined to check the registration numbers of the bikes. Two special teams have been formed to nab the miscreants, he said. Vijayanagar police have registered a case.

The police are not ruling out the role of insiders in the robbery attempt. In September, 2013, two armed men had barged into India Infoline Finance Limited(IIFL) at BEML Layout III Stage near Rajarajeshwarinagar and fled with over nine kg of gold jewellery worth Rs three crore and Rs six lakh in cash cash.