Wardha: In an incident which seemed straight out of a movie, a man threatened to blow himself up at Central Bank of India, Sewagram branch, if he was not handed over Rs55 lakh cash within 15 minutes.
Police arrested the man, who claimed himself to be a suicide bomber, on Friday at around 3pm.
The man had covered his face with a cloth and entered the bank.
At gunpoint he handed over a letter to a bank employee for the branch manager.
In the letter, the man, identified by police as Yogesh Kubade, demanded Rs55 lakh claiming that he was seriously ill and would die within 40 days if he doesn’t get treatment.
In the letter, Kubade said, “I am a suicide bomber and I have activated the bomb.
You have 15 minutes to decided your fate, there is nothing in my life to lose, but your life is precious.
Instead of informing police or raising an alarm, do it fast.
Otherwise, it would blow everyone up.” The bank is situated in front of Sewagram police station.
Two cops rushed there on getting an alert from the bank and nabbed Kubade.
He tried to flee when police handcuffed him.
“A small digital watch with six red-coloured pipe wires etc wrapped around the waist made it look like a connected bomb.
There were no explosives in it.
The plastic pipe was filled with POP,” said PSI Ganesh Saykar.
PSI and investigation officer, Jitendra Thakur, said Kubade used POP powder, plastic bottles, wire to make it look like a real bomb but we identified it as fake.
Cops confiscated a knife, an air pistol and other material from Kubade.
“He owns a cyber cafe and had purchased all the items online.
Kubade did the drama to repay a loan,” said Thakur.
Man claiming to be suicide bomber demands Rs55L at bank, arrested
