Gang stealing cash from Delhi ATMs busted, 5 arrested

The gang is led by Azad, who came out of Rohini jail on parole for nearly 20 days to plan and execute the ATM thefts, said police

Delhi Police on Monday said they have arrested five members of a gang allegedly involved in looting nearly ₹45 lakh automated teller machines (ATMs) in the city after breaking them open using gas cutters.

Two cases of ATM robberies were reported from Sarai Rohilla and Ranjeet Nagar within a gap of two days last week, police said. (Representational Image)

Two cases of ATM robberies were reported from Sarai Rohilla and Ranjeet Nagar within a gap of two days last week, police said.

Police added that the gang is led by a criminal named Azad, who came out of Rohini jail on parole for nearly 20 days, allegedly for the planning and execution of the ATM thefts.

Unlike the usual ATM thieves, who mostly tamper with CCTV cameras, take away digital video recorders, or uproot the ATM machines, the members of Azad’s gang travelled in stolen SUVs having fake number plates and only masked themselves while committing the thefts, said deputy commissioner of police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi.

“The gang has a unique modus operandi. Before stealing cars, they used to dismantle the security system installed in automatic and push-start luxury cars. The gang members identified a car and took photographs of the hologram pasted on its rear windscreens that contained unique code of the security system installed in the vehicle. The photograph is sent to the gang’s technical expert based in Dubai. The expert unlocked the security system, generated a new code and sent it back. The gang members would break the window glass of the car and use a machine having the new security code to start the vehicle and flee in it,” added DCP Kalsi.

After stealing the car, the gang members also stole number plates of other cars in bulk to further use them on the stolen vehicle while committing the ATM robberies in order to mislead police, the DCP said.

With their arrest over the last week, police have recovered ₹14.90 lakh of the total stolen money.

“We recovered 17 number plates of different vehicles, 15 screwdrivers, one toolbox, 10 pliers, one wire cutter and a hammer from the arrested people who were identified as Farman, 27, Imran alias Guddu, 25, Mohammad Dara, 58, Arman, 20, and Wasim, 32. At least three more suspects are absconding,” the officer added.

On July 2, unidentified men cut open the ATM of a nationalised bank in Sarai Rohilla and made away with ₹19.94 lakh. A case was registered, and the investigating team checked CCTVs of the adjoining routes that revealed that the suspects had come in a grey Hyundai Creta car. The car’s registration number turned out to of a Maruti Brezza car. The owner of the Brezza car was identified, and he said that his car was stolen on the night of July 1, investigators said.

The officers said that they started scanning CCTV cameras of Majlis Park from where the Brezza car was stolen. They found that the suspects had come in a Creta car. It turned out that the Creta car also was stolen from Rohini area on June 29. The CCTVs of that area were scanned, and the investigators found that the thieves had arrived in a red Maruti Swift car, but it had the registration number plate of a Baleno car of the same company.

“Our team members then focused on the routes taken by the Swift car. They eventually got its original registration and found that it was registered in the name of one Farman, a resident of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh. Farman was interrogated and he confessed to the crime. His interrogation led to the arrest of four other suspects and the recovery of ₹14.90 lakh last week. They also disclosed that they had committed a similar ATM theft in Ranjeet Nagar on July 2,” added Kalsi.