Lockdown loss, loan burden drive businessman to rob banks in Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR: The commissionerate police on Monday blew the lid off last month’s two bank robberies, involving Rs 12 lakh, and arrested a businessman, who allegedly executed both the offences to repay his loans to the tune of Rs 19 lakh that he had availed from these two banks.
Police said Soumya Ranjan Jena (25), the accused, chose the crime path after failing to repay the loans owing to heavy loss in his business during the Covid lockdown. Jena, a Plus II pass-out, owned a garment store at Tangibanta under Mancheswar police limits here.
Jena had allegedly robbed Rs 2,81,700 from Indian Overseas Bank’s branch at Nandan Vihar here on September 7 and Rs 9.53 lakh from Bank of India’s branch at Barimunda on September 28. Both the banks are located in far-off locations in the city. He was the lone accused in both the robberies.
The police got a clue about Jena while examining the CCTV cameras of both the banks and shops/houses in the vicinity. In both the cases, the police found the accused had used a Blue metallic Honda Activa and escaped towards Kalarahanga route. During further investigation and examination of the CCTV cameras at the entry and exit points of the roads, connecting to the banks, the police zeroed in on Jena.
“We found that the motive of the two robberies was to get rid of the loan burden. Jena had opened an account in both the banks and availed Rs 19 lakh loans from there a few years ago. He had already repaid Rs 6 lakh of the loan amount. But his business went bust during the lockdown due to which he could not pay the monthly EMIs. His monthly business turnover was around Rs 9 lakh before the lockdown period,” commissioner of police Sudhanshu Sarangi said.
Sources said Jena had taken Rs 14 lakh loan from Indian Overseas Bank and Rs 5 from the Indian Bank in 2017 for the purpose of expansion of his business. Police sources said his combined monthly EMI of both loans came around Rs 35,000.
“He watched social media sites and learnt the skills of bank dacoity. He was not involved in any crime earlier. Unlike other bank robberies, where multiple accused were usually involved, Jena decided to execute the two crimes alone. After committing the first robbery at Indian Oversea Bank, he repaid Rs 60,000 EMI dues at the same bank,” Sarangi said.
Police said Jena had used a toy gun and terrorized the staff at Indian Overseas Bank. But he later purchased a country-made pistol and used it while committing the robbery at Bank of India. Incidentally, his house is located nearly two kilometres from Bank of India’s branch at Barimunda. “Of the total robbed amount of Rs 12,34,700, we have recovered Rs 10,76,600 from the accused. My special appreciation goes to special squad’s assistant commissioner of police Sanjeev Satapathy for solving the blind case,” Sarangi said. The police took the accused to Bank of India’s Barimunda branch for reconstruction of the crime scene.

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