Miscreants robbed a BRAC Bank officer of Tk 1 crore after stopping the bank’s car he was in at Dakkhin Surma on the Sylhet–Dhaka Highway, some 5km off the city centre, on Sunday afternoon. Bank officials said that Gawhar Altaf Chowdury, assistant manager of the
bank’s branch at Bishwanath was carrying Tk 1 crore to his office in the car from Bandarbazar and Dakkhin Surma branches.
The officials said that several young people riding two motorcycles stopped the car, carrying the bank officer and the money, at Atirbari about 3:00pm and took the bag, containing the money, at gun point.
The bank officer Gawhar Altaf Chowdhury who was robbed told New Age that several miscreants had forced the car to pull over at Atirbari.
‘The miscreants snatched the key of the car from the driver and then took the bag that was kept on the back seat and left the place,’ he said adding that there was no security personnel in the vehicle.
‘We carry money from one branch to another in and around the city quite often,’ he said. He added that he and the driver, Sohel Ahmed, had not been hurt.
The Bishwanath branch manager, Ali Ahsan Siddiquee Miran, also told New Age that there were no security personnel with Gawhar when he was carrying the money.
SMP deputy commissioner Mushfiqur Rahman told New Age in the afternoon that they had visited the spot immediately after the incident.
‘We got some discrepancy in the statements of the banker and the car driver,’ he said.
The police officer said that they were trying to trace the people involved in the looting.
‘The banker and his driver did not try to shout for help when the incident took place in a busy place in daylight,’ the police officer said quoting the local people.
SMP additional commissioner SM Rokan Uddin said that the bank authorities usually seek police escort when carrying a large amount of money from one branch to another.
‘The BRAC Bank authorities did not inform us that they were carrying money. They also did not take their own security personnel,’ he said.
The BRAC Bank’s chief security officer Saleh Ahmad Khan, however, told New Age that the bank authorities in Sylhet had told him that the officer had their own security personnel when the money was carried.
-With New Age input
