Monday, 03 July 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Dehradun police have arrested three interstate gang members from Haryana including a woman on charges of stealing Rs four lakh cash from an ATM booth situated near the Haridwar Dehradun National Highway in the Doiwala area in the wee hours of Tuesday last week. The gang reportedly took only eight minutes to steal money from the ATM to celebrate Eid.
The police have recovered all the equipment used by them to cut the machine to steal money and two gang members are still absconding, said the senior superintendent of police Daleep Singh Kunwar in a Press conference here on Sunday. He said that an ATM of State Bank of India located in the service lane of Miyanwala flyover was cut with a gas cutter by unknown thieves who stole a huge amount of cash in the wee hours of June 27. The manager of the company who was running the ATM booth filed a complaint against them at the police station. He informed the police that a total of Rs eight lakh was deposited to the ATM on the morning of June 26.
The SSP said that four teams were formed under the supervision of the superintendent of police (rural) Kamlesh Upadhyay, SP (Crime) Sarvesh Panwar, and circle officer (CO) of Doiwala Anil Sharma. He said that the police found during the investigation that similar incidents have happened at the Nuh district in Haryana and suspected the involvement of the same gang. A police team was sent there to gather evidence about the case while others were investigating. When the police started the investigation, they found out that all the accused had worn face masks and sprayed black paint on all cameras installed inside and outside the booth but a small camera installed inside the ATM caught their act.
The camera revealed how cleverly the gang cut the ATM and committed the whole theft in eight minutes, said SSP. He said that though all gang members had worn face masks, the police teams saw the footage of about 400 CCTV cameras to analyse their height and body movement and sent the information to informers and the Haryana police.
On the basis of the evidence, the police finally nabbed them on July 1 and brought them to Dehradun. Kunwar said that the police have arrested three accused- Hamid (28), Aneesh (28), and Nazma (30) while two accused identified as Saddam and Tasleem are still absconding. He said that all are residents of Nuh and have committed such crimes in several states like Haryana and Maharashtra. “They would have stolen money from other ATMs of the State too if we would have failed to nab them. They said they stole the money on June 27 to celebrate Bakrid on June 29. We are getting their criminal history and will nab the absconding accused soon too,” added SSP.
