Balangir: A group of armed miscreants allegedly looted Rs 4.64 lakh pension money from a Panchayat Executive Officer (PEO) and his associate after pushing his running bike on National Highway (NH) 42 near Punjipathar village of Balangir district.
As alleged by Satya Ghibhela, the PEO of Bangomunda grama panchayat, he was going to Kantabanji on a bike along with his associate EO Chintamani Rana after withdrawing Rs 4,64,800 from the Bangomunda branch of the State Bank of India (SBI).
In the meantime, three armed miscreants, who were in an Apache bike, taking the advantage of the lonely place pushed the bike of the PEO and EO purposefully. As the officials fell to the ground, the miscreants broke open the bike dikki and looted the cash after threatening them.
Not knowing what to do next, the PEO and EO informed the local police about the loot. Soon, a team of cops rushed to the spot and started an investigation into the matter.
Police collected some inputs from the duo and sent them to the hospital for treatment as they had sustained injuries on different parts of their bodies after falling down from the vehicle.
Police are also reportedly verifying the footages of the CCTV cameras installed at different places around the locality to identify the bike and the miscreants.
“Three miscreants came and pushed our bike from behind near Punjipathar village. As we fell down they started beating up and looted the money by threatening us. We had withdrawn the money from the bank to distribute to the pensioners tomorrow. Police probed at the spot and are now verifying some CCTV footages,” informed the PEO.
Ms Kalinga