VARANASI: In a daring daylight heist, four armed miscreants riding two mobikes shot dead a cash van guard and injured three others outside Beltar branch of Axis Bank under Katra Kotwali police station in Mirzapur district and escaped with a metal box and a bag containing Rs 39 lakh on Tuesday afternoon.Giving this information, ADG Varanasi zone Ram Kumar said, "Ten police teams from the entire zone have been engaged to work out the case in which involvement of criminals from Madhya Pradesh has come to light during initial investigation."Footage collected by the police from CCTV cameras of the bank and nearby buildings in Beltar market area showed that cash van guard Jai Singh, a native of Chilh, was looking inside the vans safe in which boxes and bags containing cash were kept. In the meantime four miscreants, wearing helmets, raided the place on two motorcycles. One of the miscreants opened fire on the guard. When cashiers Akhilesh of Padri and Rajnish Maurya of Visunderpur, rushed to help the guard, the looters opened fire on them also.Later, when the looters were trying to escape with the cash box and bag, a passer-by, Bahadur Gond of Vindhyachal, tried to stop them. The looters hit and injured Gond and escaped from the spot.The incident led to chaos in the market. The locals rushed the injured guard and other persons to the district hospital. On getting information, SP Mirzapur Abhinandan reached the spot and also visited the hospital to check on the injured persons. DIG Mirzapur range RP Singh also camped at the incident site while ADG zone reached there late afternoon from Varanasi.SP Mirzapur said, "During the course of treatment, the cash van guard succumbed to injuries while the condition of the three injured persons is stable. The district police were alerted immediately after the incident and a massive checking drive was launched by sealing the borders."ADG zone said that police teams engaged for an early workout of the case. "They have received vital clues regarding the criminals involved in the incident. The cops are suspecting involvement of criminals from neighbouring MP," he added.

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