Nagpur: A 28-year-old man was arrested shortly after allegedly robbing ₹4.53 lakh from an SBI branch in Sakardara after throwing chilli powder into the eyes of bank employees and threatening them with a weapon on Thursday evening.

The accused has been identified as Suraj Bhojraj Borkar, 28, a resident of Tatoli village in Bhiwapur tehsil, Nagpur district.

According to Sakardara police, complainant Ganpati Vithobaji Umredkar, 59, works as a cash officer at the SBI Sakardara branch. Around 6 pm on September 10, Umredkar had withdrawn cash from the CDM machine adjoining the bank and returned to the branch.

While he was preparing the day’s transaction report at Counter No. 3, an unidentified man, believed to be around 25-26 years old, allegedly entered the bank and threw chilli powder from a bag into the eyes of Umredkar and other women employees.

As Umredkar moved back and turned to pick up a wooden stick, the accused allegedly jumped over Counter No. 4, grabbed a cash bag from the table and fled after threatening him with a weapon.

After raising an alarm, the bank officials informed police. On counting the cash left on the table, they found that ₹4.53 lakh had been forcibly taken away.

Sakardara police personnel, including beat marshals and members of the investigation team, immediately reached the bank. After obtaining the suspect’s description, they followed the direction in which he had fled and spotted a man matching the description.

Police chased and detained him before bringing him to the police station. During a search, police allegedly recovered ₹4.53 lakh in cash from a yellow bag in his possession.

Police also seized an orange-yellow iron cutter, an iron spearhead, an iron rod, a nylon rope and a packet of chilli powder from him.

Sakardara police registered a case under Section 309(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and arrested Borkar. Further investigation is underway.