
BHUBANESWAR: Miscreants uprooted a State Bank of India (SBI) ATM at Sriram Nagar area within Lingaraj police limits here and decamped with over Rs 21 lakh cash late on Thursday night.
Preliminary probe suggests three to four masked persons entered the ATM kiosk between 2.30 am and 3 am and dismantled the unit using iron rods. They damaged the CCTV cameras before dislodging the machine.
The miscreants used a stolen cargo auto-rickshaw to transport the ATM till Gangua canal in Dhauli on the outskirts of the city where they broke it open and took out the cash. They dumped the ATM machine and left behind the stolen auto-rickshaw on the spot. The auto owner too has lodged a theft complaint with Lingaraj police.
Sources said SBI officials have told the investigators that the CCTV cameras have recorded the accused persons when they stepped into the kiosk, before they disconnected the devices. A purported CCTV footage of the same kiosk went viral on the day in which four men with their faces covered could be seen carrying away the dismantled machine at about 2.45 am.
Police are verifying the CCTV footage to ascertain whether it is of the kiosk which was targeted. At least three teams of Lingaraj and Airfield police stations along with Special Squad are closely working to find some leads and crack the case at the earliest.
Sources said cops are probing if this is the handiwork of locals or criminals from outside the state. “The ATM and the auto-rickshaw were recovered at around 5.30 am on Friday. Two cases of theft have been registered in this connection and further probe is on,” said an officer of Lingaraj police station.
SBI officials have informed the police that more than Rs 21 lakh cash was put in the Sriram Nagar kiosk recently. “All efforts are being made to identify and nab the accused involved in the crime,” said Bhubaneswar DCP, Pinak Mishra.
This is not for the first time that criminals adopted a similar modus operandi to loot cash from ATM. A gang of robbers had uprooted a SBI ATM in Lingipur Housing Board Colony on April 5, 2022, and decamped with over Rs 20 lakh cash while dumping the machine near Daya river. On April 16, police had arrested two persons including a Bangladeshi national in connection with the crime.
While ATM break-ins by using gas cutters and subsequent cash loot are not uncommon, the theft of the entire machine, weighing over four quintals in Sriram Nagar area is the second such incident in the state capital in the last three years.