Armed robbers struck at State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur in Samai Pur Badli area of Outer Delhi on Monday morning and made away with close to Rs 24 lakh after holding bank staff and customers hostage.

The incident comes exactly a week after four armed robbers took away close to Rs 5 lakh from a UCO Bank branch in Hauz Khas, South Delhi.

In both cases, incidentally, the bank guards were on leave; they had reportedly gone to their hometowns — in Sonepat and Jhajjar, adjacent cities in Haryana. Besides, police sources said, the general description of robbers and the modus operandi had similarities in both cases (see box).

The branch does not have CCTV cameras.

According to police and witnesses, the assailants locked up 18 people — 11 bank officials among them, including the branch manager and his deputy — in the storage room and the bathroom. The bank staff claimed they had panicked and thus did not activate the emergency alert, DCP (Outer) Atul Katiyar said.

The bank opens shutters for the public at 10 am, and the staff report half-an-hour before that. Police officers said the robbers apparently came around the same time and surveyed the single-storey building and the area around.

A few customers had come early to avoid the morning rush, an officer said. “At about 9.35 am, two assailants with countrymade pistols took the staff and some customers hostage,” the officer said. “A third assailant took position behind the gate overlooking the narrow passage leading to the entrance. As customers approached, the assailant pulled them inside, snatched their mobile phones and locked them in.”

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