Kolkata, Nov 13 (IANS) Four employees of a nationalised bank were killed and a senior official critically injured by unidentified assailants inside a branch in West Bengal’s Nadia district, police said Friday.
Police are investigating whether the crime was carried out by Maoists or any cross-border criminal outfit.

“It’s a grave matter and we’re looking into all aspects of the case. We’re trying to find out whether these attackers were Maoists or they came from Bangladesh side,” Nadia district Superintendent of Police Champak Bhattacharya told IANS.

The employees of United Bank of India (UBI)’s Karimpur branch, located about 100 km from district headquarters Krishnagar, were attacked late Thursday night. Karimpur, about 168 km from Kolkata, is close to the Indo-Bangladesh border.

All the bodies were found lying in the pool of blood with their throats slit. The deputy manager of the bank, Amit Mallik was also severely injured by the assailants. Later, he was taken to a Kolkata hospital for medical treatment.

“We cannot ascertain anything now. It requires a deep investigation before making any comment on the matter,” Bhattacharya said, adding the police were investigating all possible aspects.

According to bank sources, the assailants looted some money kept outside the vault.

“We think it was a robbery attempt. The assailants looted some money from the bank,” a senior bank official said.

He said Mallik, seriously injured in the attack, is now out of danger.