Medak bank robbed, PWG hand suspected

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MAY 3. Four persons, suspected to be extremists of the People's War Group (PWG), raided the State Bank of India branch in Narsingi village of Medak district on Thursday afternoon and decamped with Rs. 1.51 lakhs in cash. The unexpected bank heist has caught the police unawares.

According to the Medak SP, Mr. V. Venugopala Sharma, three persons, clad in pants and shirts, walked into the bank around 12.15 p.m. One of them was carrying a weapon, which looked like a carbine. The trio asked the bank staff to hand over the cash and before leaving the place handed over a note to the staff. The staff were asked not to move out of the building or call anyone for at least an hour. The terror-stricken bank employees waited for exactly an hour and then called the police.

None of the customers or the bank staff noticed how the four extremists escaped. The note handed over to the staff said that the money taken away from the bank would be given to the children of extremists who were killed in police encounters. The note was reportedly written by the Narsapur squad, which operates in the district.

What surprised the police was that the PWG cadres were not known to have targeted banks in the recent past, barring one such robbery in Mahabubnagar district last year. Narsingi village is situated between Ramayampet and Chegunta villages on the Nagpur highway and there was also a lingering suspicion that the bank offence was to lure police teams, which could be ambushed by extremists.

The Medak police took up an extensive operation to check all the culverts and kutcha roads to unearth any of the landmines hidden by the PWG. However, a police team had managed to rush immediately to Narsingi and recorded the statements of the bank staff and other eye-witnesses.

Five killed in one month

Our Nizamabad Staff Reporter writes:

Three persons, including a constable, were gunned down by suspected People's War Group naxalites in two separate incidents of violence in Yellampet and Somarampet villages under the Machareddy police station limits, about 90 km from here.

While the constable, Ramulu, and his brother, Sangya, both tribals, were shot dead from point blank range in Somarampet village by members of a special action team, a former militant met with similar fate in Yellampet village. With this, the number of PWG related killings had touched five in the last one month alone.

According to the Additional SP (Operations), Mr. Atul Singh, the first incident occurred in Yellampet village when two members of the PWG action team visited the house of former militant, Penugonda Sailoo, and asked him to accompany them to the village outskirts to discuss some issue. The unsuspecting victim accompanied them only to be shot dead some distance away.

The victim had earlier worked in the Kamareddy squad for two years and was later arrested by the police. After his release, he was staying in the village. The police suspect the murder could be due to differences having cropped up between naxals and the victim after his sister, Penugonda Sandhya alias Rajeswari, 14, joined the underground outfit.

The second incident was in Banjapalli tanda of Yellampet gram panchayat. Four naxals visited the newly constructed house of the constable, B.Ramulu, working in Dichpalli police station. The naxals directed Ramulu to accompany them which was resisted by his younger brother, Sangya. One of the infuriated naxals, whipped out his shot weapon and pumped bullets into Sangya, killing him on the spot. The naxal then pointed his revolver at Ramulu and fired at resulting in his instantaneous death.

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