Baghpat. The miscreants escaped after taking out more than eight and a half lakh rupees by cutting an ATM on the side of Baghpat-Meerut highway in the city. The police and bank staff did not even know about it. The culprits are said to be local.
There is an ATM booth outside the Punjab and Sind Bank branch on the Baghpat-Meerut highway. As usual, the shutter of the ATM booth was closed on the night of 25 December. Late night, the miscreants broke into the ATM booth by breaking the lock of the shutter and went away comfortably after cutting the machine and withdrawing about Rs 8,56,700.
The miscreants stayed in the ATM booth for about two and a half hours, but neither the police nor the bank staff came to know. On coming to know about the incident on Sunday morning, the bank staff and police reached there and investigated. Bank manager Pradeep Saroha says that on December 22, Rs 8.50 lakh cash was deposited in the ATM machine. In view of the Christmas festival, more cash was deposited, so that the consumers do not face the problem of cash. There was already cash in the ATM.
The miscreants carried out the incident by cutting the wire of the siren and CCTV installed in the ATM. The bank’s single window operator Ashok Shukla filed a case in Kotwali. At the same time, the footage of CCTV cameras installed in houses and shops around the bank was checked.
Two suspects have been seen in a camera installed in a nursing home in the area. It is suspected that it was he who carried out the incident. Police is trying to identify them. SP Neeraj Kumar Jadaun says that on the basis of preliminary investigation, the criminals are local. It is suspected that two miscreants riding bikes were involved in the incident. The team of Kotwali Police and Crime Branch is working. The case will be exposed soon.
The miscreants openly challenged the police by withdrawing cash worth lakhs from the ATM. The working style of the police, which made tall claims of security, also got exposed.
CCTV footage shows that the miscreants entered the ATM booth at around 2.32 pm on the night of 25 December and left at 4.46 pm. A miscreant is seen coming and going on the bike. Who took one of his companions standing in front of the bank on a bike and took them towards Meerut. It is clear from this that the miscreants have carried out the incident according to the entire plan. One of the miscreants did a recce standing on the other end of the highway in front of the bank and the other miscreant took out the cash from the ATM machine. The police could not catch, so as soon as entering the ATM, the cable of the CCTV camera and siren was disconnected. People are questioning the security arrangements of the police regarding this incident. The demand of the people is that the police should expose the case as soon as possible.
The security of ATMs in the district is rampant. Neither the police nor the bank officers are serious about their safety. Most ATMs do not have security guards posted at night. This is the situation when one event after another is happening. On the night of May 6, the miscreants had withdrawn Rs 7.20 lakh from the ATM of Canara Bank branch located on the side of Delhi-Yamnuotri highway in village Katha. In this manner, this event was carried out. The machine was cut with a gas cutter. In the past, attempts have been made to steal ATM booths at many places including Baghpat Nagar, Baraut.
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