The Sanjaynagar police on Tuesday arrested three people for their alleged role in theft of cash from a Canara Bank ATM on the busy Nagashettyhalli Main Road on Saturday evening, and recovered `18 lakh from them.
The arrested are Raghu M (34), a native Belur, Mahesh (40) and Suneel (32) both are natives of Hassan.
Police said the main accused Raghu, who was working in Dodla Dairy, also worked as an assistant field officer with Check Mate Security agency.
Raghu frequented the ATM whenever some of the officials of the security agency were on leave.
After studying the security arrangements at the ATM on Nagashettyhalli Main Road, he planned to loot it along with his friends Mahesh, who worked in a private power company in Hassan, and Suneel, a fabricator.
As Raghu frequently used to visit the ATM, he had also learnt that the CCTV cameras put up there were not working.
He had even discussed about the theft with his friends a week earlier.
On Saturday, the three accused went to the ATM on the pretext of repairing it, broke open the machine using a gas torch and made away with `19 lakh cash that was in the machine.
They Were Yet to Share the Booty
After the theft, Raghu had given `50,000 each to the two others and told them that he will share some more money with them after a few days.
Police were able to trace the accused after collecting all details of the security guards and staff involved in the ATM maintenance.