Dinhata police on Wednesday arrested three employees of Uttarbanga Kshetriya Gramin Bank for allegedly staging Tuesday morning’s Rs 19 lakh “fake heist”.

On Tuesday, the cashier of the bank Atarul Hussain, bank manager Arijit Bhowmik and another employee, Chandra Shekar Barman, had claimed that three persons had entered the premises around 10.55am and robbed the bank of Rs 19 lakh after locking Hussian and Bhowmik inside the bank locker.

The duo said that they were in the process of transferring cash from the locker to the cashier room when the incident took place.

A police source said probe revealed that the entire act had been staged. “Ataur Hussain, the cashier, had removed that amount gradually from the bank over a period spanning several months. The manager and other staff were aware of the details and supported the crime,” said the source.

The UKGB's Nigamnagar branch in Dinhata subdivison is located some 30km from Cooch Behar town.
“The arrested bank employees are Atarul Hussain, the cashier of the branch, Arijit Bhowmik, the branch manager and Chandra Shekar Barman, a staffer of the branch,” Sumit Kumar, the superintendent of police of Cooch Behar district, said.

Police sources said that investigators had sensed something amiss as an alarm had not been raised by the three staff after the so-called heist.
Even the local residents had come to know about the incident only after police reached the spot, leading the police to suspect foul play inside the bank.
“During interrogation, the trio broke down and admitted that the crime was staged,” said a police source.

Even though preliminary investigation suggests that the cashier had misappropriated the amount, police are looking for motives that prompted the manager and the staffer to be complicit.

“The duo was fully aware of the cashier’s deeds and yet they supported him and chose to remain silent for a long time,” said a source.
The trio were produced before the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Dinhata on Wednesday. The court sent the three accused to police remand for six days.