Written by Sujit BisoyiBhubaneswar | January 20, 2026 07:19 AM IST 2 min readThe robbery took place at the Bank of Maharashtra branch in Barbil town.ARMED ROBBERS walked into a bank in Keonjhar district of Odisha during business hours on Monday and fled with gold jewellery worth over Rs 5 crore and Rs 5 lakh cash – facing barely any resistance. Police said the bank, which largely deals in gold loans, had only two staff members and not a single security guard.The robbery took place at the Bank of Maharashtra branch in Barbil town. Apart from gold jewellery weighing around 3.7 kg, the robbers took away the CCTV digital video recorder of the bank that contained the robbery footage, police said.Manager of the branch Pankaj Kumar Barnwal said the robbers pointed gun at his head and asked for the locker key. “As they started assaulting, we had to take them to the locker room. They took the packets of gold and cash,” he said.On the absence of security personnel at the bank, the manager said the head office takes the call about deployment of security guards.According to police, five or six unidentified miscreants entered the bank, pulled out firearms and threatened the bank staff and customers. They took control of the premises and fled in motorcycles within 20 minutes.“The robbery took place between 1:55 pm to 2:15 pm. As per the bank staffers, the suspects were talking in both Hindi and Odia. We have started a probe into the matter even as the bank employees are yet to file a formal complaint,” inspector-in-charge of Barbil police station Ashok Kumar Nayak told The Indian Express.Police said the robbers are suspected to be from Jharkhand or Bihar and appeared to have all information about the branch, including absence of security.Sujit Bisoyi is a Special Correspondent with the Indian Express and covers Odisha. His interests are in politics, policy and people’s stories. He tweets at @bisoyisujit87 ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Odisha