Shivpuri (Madhya Pradesh): The city police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested five criminals who recently tried to loot the Punjab National Bank in the Khaniyandhana area in Gudar village.
Two other members of the gang are absconding, the police said.
Superintendent of police Raghuwansh Singh Bhadoria said on Wednesday, that on the night of January 16, a bang of criminals barged into a branch of PNB in Gudar village.
They tried to break the locker with the help of a gas cutter, but they failed, because the police were patrolling the area.
When the criminals heard the sirens of the police vehicle, they made off. A sum of Rs 8 lakh was kept in the bank.
The police began search for the criminals and arrested five of them.
Bhadoria said Dheeraj Sahu, a resident of Khaniyandhana and who was running a kiosk, was the mastermind behind the crime.
He took a loan of Rs 15 lakh from the bank and a plan to loot money from the bank to pay the loan.
Dheeraj included Dharmendra Vishwakarma, Dharmendra Jatav, Brajesh Prajapati, Arvind Pal and Naval Jatav in his gang to loot the bank.
Dheeraj also included in his gang an expert in using gas cutter, Anil Jha, in his gang. The gang members bought a gas cutter and other equipment from Jhansi.
Just as they broke the door of the bank locker, the thieves heard the sirens of the police vehicle and ran away out of fear.
The police launched a search for other members of the gang that tried to loot the bank.
