Criminals shoot at petrol pump cashier, loot ₹48 lakh

Bihar Petroleum Dealers’ Association general secretary Bijendra Sinha said they have become a soft target for criminals.

Unidentified criminals shot at a Reliance petrol pump’s cashier and looted ₹48 lakh from him near Siris More on National Highway-2 under Barun police station of Bihar’s Aurangabad district on Monday, officials said.

Image for representation. (File Photo)

The injured, Ram Niwas Singh, a resident of Japla in Jharkhand, along with another staff, was on his way to Dehri branch of Punjab National bank to deposit the cash of Reliance Petrol pump when four criminals on two bikes shot at him and fled with the cash, Aurangabad SP Sudhir Kumar Porika said.

“Ram Niwas Singh, was attached with Radiant Security Company and worked at Reliance Petrol pump, received a gunshot injury on his shoulder and is undergoing treatment at Jamuhar Narayana Hospital,” SP Porika said.

The SP said the criminals had probably been following the employees from the petrol pump itself. He said police had got some CCTV camera footage of the suspects and were working to ascertain their identities.

Porika said though only one empty cartridge was recovered from the spot, they came to know that criminals had fired several rounds during the incident.

“The money was collected from sales on Sunday,” he added.

According to the injured, he along with Arun Kumar, left the pump on a Bolero jeep at around 12 pm to deposit the cash when bike-borne criminals intercepted and forced them to hand over the bag at pistol point. “When I resisted their attempt, one of them fired and snatched the bag containing cash,” he said. The victim then informed the police, who have lodged a case and have started the investigations.

Meanwhile, Bihar Petroleum Dealers’ Association general secretary Bijendra Sinha said they have become a soft target for criminals. “Though we have been asked to get security cover from the police station concerned, practically it is impossible as there are multiple petrol pumps under one police station,” he said.

Sinha said it would be better to develop some mechanism that money from all pumps under one police station is collected and police escort it to a bank. “There is no option for us but to continue depositing money as until oil companies are paid, they won’t deliver us fuel,” he added.