VIJAYAWADA: Prakasam district police arrested three members on Friday for their alleged involvement in the theft of money from an ATM cash machine. The police also recovered Rs 66 stole cash from them. The three accused were identified as Sannamuru Mahesh Babu, Racharla Rajasekjar and Gujjula Venkata Konda Reddy.
The accused Mahesh recently left the job in the ATM cash depositing company Cash Management Services (CMS), Konda Reddy is serving as a manager in the same company and hatched a plan to loot the money along with Mahesh’s relative Rajashekhar. According to an officials release from Prakasam district Superintendent of Police (SP) Garud Sumit Sunil, the incident took place on Thursday around 2 pm when the ATM cash carrying vehicle was parked in front of Punjab National Bank ATM centre near Sri Ayurvedic Speciality Hospital of Ongole town.
The CMS staff received Rs 68 lakh cash from five different banks in Ongole town and reached the Punjab Nation Bank ATM.
When the van driver and security staff were having lunch in a room behind the ATM centre, the accused Mahesh and Rajashekar opened the doors of the van and took the money in the vehicle and fled the scene.
After the staff returned to the van, they noticed that the cash was missing and informed the same to the manager Konda Reddy, who lodged a complaint with Ongole Taluk police. “Four special teams were formed and identified the accused using advanced technology. The accused Mahesh resigned recently and committed the crime with the information from manager Konda Reddy pertaining to the cash and vehicle. All the three accused were arrested and produced in the court,” said the SP Garud Sumit Sunil.
The SP further instructed the private security agencies to have two armed guards including a driver near the cash transporting vehicles and CCTV cameras installed in the vehicles to avoid the cash being stolen.