Four masked men entered an ATM kiosk, cut open the machine and made off with nearly Rs 30 lakh – all this in just four minutes. The heist happened at an SBI ATM in the Rangareddy district of Telangana in the early hours of Sunday.
At 1.56 am, a man was seen getting out of a car and casually walking towards the kiosk. He then sprayed something on the CCTV camera at the gate to avoid detection. They even cut the emergency siren wires. The robbers, however, failed to cover the CCTV camera inside the kiosk, which captured the entire theft.
Three men, armed with an iron rod and gas cutter, were seen cutting open the cash dispensing machine while one of them stood guard outside. They then took out the cash to the tune of Rs 29.69 lakh and left the centre at 2 am. They even rolled down the shutter behind them after the 4-minute heist.
NDTV spoke to the area assistant commissioner of police, Raju, who said they had been able to locate the car on multiple CCTV cameras on the route it took. “There were five people. One in the car, one waiting outside and three inside. They came equipped with gas cutters and iron rods to break open the ATM machine and take the wads of currency,” he told NDTV.
“We suspect it is a gang from Haryana. They tried to loot another ATM too at Mylardevpally but suffered an electric shock while trying to cut the alarm sensors, so they abandoned the plan. We have reason to believe the same gang committed ATM thefts in Bengaluru and also Hosur in Tamil Nadu where a similar modus operandi was followed,” investigators told NDTV.
Multiple teams have been formed to trace the culprits and recover the cash.
