Four motorcycle-borne miscreants snatched Rs 6.36 lakh from a contractor in broad daylight at Adarsh Nagar, about 12km from Ranchi in Tatsilwai police station area on Thursday.
The incident took place at 1.10pm, when civil contractor Shakti Kumar Singh was on his way to the Usha Martin works from his Adarsh Nagar home on this motorbike.
The miscreants struck barely 100m from Singh's home, snatching his laptop bag that had the cash which was payment for labourers.
According to the police, while Rs 2 lakh was withdrawn by Singh from the Kokar branch of State Bank of India, the rest he collected from his house.
Superintendent of police (rural) Asim Vikrant Minz confirmed the incident and said there were two motorbikes and four snatchers involved.
"The miscreants were wearing helmets. As Singh came out of his house, one motorbike came from the back and hit Singh's bike. As he fell, that bike sped away but a second bike came forward. The pillion rider pointed a pistol at Singh who was still to get up, and snatched the bag containing the cash. Then the second bike also sped away," said Minz.
Minz said an FIR was registered in this connection at Tatisilwai police station based on Singh's statement and investigations were on.
Meanwhile, the police busted another snatching gang and produced two youths. "Two of the four-member gang from Ganjam district of Odisha have been arrested with Rs 20,000 cash and three mobile phones. Shanker Das and Bandi Kaliyasa were in the city for last three months," said senior superintendent of police Saket Kumar Singh.
On August 3, two motorcycle-borne miscreants snatched Rs 65,000 from 48-year homemaker Sanicharia Tirkey at Namkum Bazar. The incident took place at 11am when the lady was returning home from the Namkum branch of State Bank of India.
Two days before that, two motorcycle-borne miscreants snatched Rs 7,500 from a retired teacher near Mahatma Gandhi Chowk on Main Road. They struck around 12.30pm when the victim was on his way home from Raj Hospital branch of Punjab National Bank.
On July 30, a retired junior engineer of minor irrigation department Umesh Prasad Singh (65) lost Rs 1.9 lakh at Kathal More under Pundag outpost of Jagannathpur police station area.