BHUBANESWAR: The City police on Saturday arrested two persons including a Bangladesh national from Bengaluru for their alleged involvement in decamping with an entire ATM of State Bank of India from Indira Colony in Lingipur area on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar recently.
Khokan Molla (35) of Bangladesh, Mijanur Rehaman Molla of West Bengal and four of their associates had allegedly removed the ATM from the kiosk in the wee hours of April 5, carried the machine in a stolen vehicle to Daya river bed and made away with over Rs 20 lakh cash. The accused have managed to transfer the entire stolen money to Bangladesh with the help of their associates or middlemen.
The police had managed to recover a short video as the miscreants had immediately delinked the CCTV cameras installed in the ATM kiosk. They examined the footage and collected vital clues regarding the identity of those involved in the theft. Besides, police visited various hotels in the Capital city as part of their investigation.
They found out that four of the accused had arrived in the city 15 to 20 days before executing the crime and two others reached here on April 2. “After collecting some clues, we looked into similar offences committed in other parts of the country. We found out that 3 Bangladesh nationals were held from New Delhi in 2020 for dislodging an ATM in Goa and stealing cash from it,” said Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Police Commissioner SK Priyadarsi.
Police then established that the miscreants involved in the crime here are members of the Bangladesh gang. They tracked their mobile phones and a team led by Special Squad ACP Sanjeev Satpathy left for Bengaluru on April 10.
They searched 30 hotels in Bengaluru and managed to nab Khokan and Mijanur. Khokan of Bangladesh’s Bagerhat district was staying in West Bengal’s Murshidabad. Police suspect the other accused are nationals of Bangladesh and efforts are on to nab them. Five mobile phones have been seized from them.
PROBE SO FAR
Accused transferred the entire amount to Bangladesh
Other accused may also be Bangladesh nationals and efforts are on to nab them
A short CCTV video helped cops collect vital clues