D Yadagiri is not educated and does not even have a debit or credit card. But he was able to break open a ‘highly secure’ AT M. He knew that a AT M dispenses money but was not aware how it actually functions or where the money is stored.
Call it sheer luck or negligence of bank authorities, Yadagiri became a lakhpati in just 30 minutes. Yadagiri alias Yadi, a 45- year-old mason from Saidabad managed to break open the SBH AT M at Dhobighat in the wee hours of January 15.
According to police commissioner AK Khan, Yadagiri along with an auto driver, Shankar used to commit petty offences like stealing bicycles and manhole covers.
They used to sell them and consume toddy at Champapet. On the night of January 14, the duo started moving near Saidabad crossroads, searching for something to steal. “As they reached the AT M, Yadagiri entered it out of enthusiasm and searched the two machines. He meddled with one AT M for sometime but could not open it,’’ Khan said. He was not even aware his act was being recorded by CCTVs.
Yadagiri found that the other machine’s door had been left loose and with help of a screw driver, he managed to open the chest. “He opened the upper part with a screw driver. He did not even had to open the bottom part as it was left loose and removed four boxes from it. Then he took one outside and with the help of Shankar, broke it open and found bundles of money,’’ Khan said. Police said the machine’s bottom part was not tightly closed by bank authorities. “Yadagiri opened it just like opening a refrigerator door. We went through CCTV footage and saw that the authorities did not close the combination lock properly,’’ Khan said.
Yadagiri returned back to the AT M after 30 minutes and took away the remaining boxes. During the break, two to three customers came and did transaction. They did not notice the boxes lying outside.
Yadagiri bundled the three boxes in a newspaper and took them away. “Yadagiri claims that Shankar fled from the spot when he came back to take the three boxes.
We feel the former alone was involved in the theft as he couldn’t tell anything about Shankar,’’ Khan said.
He went to his second wife’s house at Yadagirigutta and made a fixed deposit of `1.90 lakh in name of his son, Mahesh in Nalgonda Cooperative Bank. He also purchased a television, a bike for his son all worth `50,000. Police recovered `8.40 lakh worth valuables including `6 lakh cash.
