Even after one month has passed since the ₹12.68 lakh loot at the Oriental Bank of Commerce’s ATM kiosk at Chapar village in Ghanaur subdivision on October 11, the district police are still groping in the dark. They are yet to zero-in on the miscreants involved in the heist.
Police claim to be rummaging through the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footages of nearby areas to get information about the accused and the vehicle used to commit the crime, but nothing concrete has come to fore so far.
A team of senior officials of the crime investigation agencies (CIAs) of Patiala and Samana are investigating the matter.
One of the investigating officers, pleading anonymity, said that the teams are gathering a list of historysheeters in the region who have been involved in ATM loots in the past. After inspecting the crime scene, the police had deduced that the miscreants were professionals and had full knowledge about the technology and technicalities.
“The accused had managed to shut down the in-built CCTV cameras in the machine and other cameras installed inside the kiosk,” the officer said.
The CCTV camera installed inside the kiosk had recorded the miscreants entering the kiosk, but there is no footage after that.
{{/usCountry}}The CCTV camera installed inside the kiosk had recorded the miscreants entering the kiosk, but there is no footage after that.
{{/usCountry}}Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Manpreet Singh said that police are working on different leads and trying to crack the case at the earliest.
“The matter is still under investigation. Hence, vital leads cannot be shared at this moment. We are also working on gathering the analysing key, and physical and technical evidence collected from the crime spot,” he said.
THE MATTER
On October 11, before calling it a day, the bank staff had shut down the main shutter of the ATM kiosk. Later, the accused had broken the shutter and entered the kiosk before switching off the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) of the ATM machine. They had then broke into the cash chest with the help of gas cutters.
Despite strict guidelines from the district administration, no security guard was deployed at the ATM kiosk. The bank officials had failed to pay heed to repeated recommendations of the local police to depute a security guard and install more CCTV cameras in the area.