Robbery near Gour

MALDA, April 2: Despite police escort, armed culprits succeeded in looting Rs 2.5 lakh from a government vehicle at Kanchantar near Gour in English Bazaar police station around 4.15 p.m. today. Employees of the sericulture department were transporting the amount to Piasbari for payment of salary in a vehicle when eight culprits blocked the road with a rickshaw van and overpowered the security forces. “The police personnel were injured and a finger of a constable was chopped off. The culprit snatched two rifles from them,” said the Malda SP Mr Satyajit Bandyopadhayay. He, however, added that the police recovered the two rifles near Khasimari village where the culprits had abandoned them. n sns