Armed miscreants robbed three collection agents of vegetable businessmen on a Ranchi bound bus from Calcutta along NH-33, barely 30km from Jharkhand capital, on Tuesday morning.

According to locals, the private bus (named Shivam) from Calcutta had reached Nawadih under the Dasam police station area of Ranchi district at 5.30am on Tuesday when the bus ticket collector started shouting after being attacked by a criminal. The bus driver stopped the bus and the four criminals taking advantage jumped from the bus and escaped through the field.

According to police officials, there were four miscreants but only one had a country-made pistol, one had a sharp knife and two others were busy looting the collection agents.

“The three collection agents of Ranchi-based vegetable wholesalers were returning with cash collected from vegetable sellers of Calcutta. The bus had left Calcutta on Monday night. The bus staff claimed that the miscreants boarded the bus posing as passengers. The bus staff came to know when the ticket collector who had gone to collect the fare from three school girls was attacked by one of the criminals,” said Ranchi rural superintendent of police, Manish Toppo who had reached the spot.

Apart from the ticket collector, the driver was also attacked and one of the collection agents was also attacked.

“The collection agents claimed that they were carrying Rs 18 lakh which had been looted by the miscreants,” said Toppo. “We are probing into all angles and it seems that they were targeting the collection agents from Calcutta, but surprisingly none of the co-passengers were aware of the looting and snatching. A case has been registered and investigation is on,” added Toppo.

Local police officials do not rule out the nexus between miscreants and the collection agents.

“All the Ranchi vegetable wholesalers are based in Itki in Ranchi. The collection agents might have given shape to such loot with their accomplices close to Ranchi. Looters from Calcutta would have indulged in the looting anywhere on the Bengal border and not close to Ranchi,” said a local police official.