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Thieves cut open ATM kiosk in Delhi's Moti Nagar after spray painting CCTV, flee with ₹5 lakh cash
Police are investigating a theft at ATM kiosk in Delhi's Moti Nagar, where thieves disabled CCTV cameras and used a gas cutter to steal ₹5 lakh in cash.
A group of thieves targeted an ATM kiosk in Delhi's Moti Nagar, making away with a substantial amount of ₹5 lakh in cash. The perpetrators, yet to be identified, first disabled the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras by spraying them with black paint. The thieves then used a gas cutter to slice open the ATM kiosk, gaining access to the cash vault within.
Police reached the spot after receiving a call regarding the theft at an ATM kiosk at HDFC Sudarshan Park on Friday night. A case under IPC sections 457 and 380 has been registered at Moti Nagar Police Station, and the police were further investigating the case.
The theft incident occurred weeks after the Delhi Police apprehended five members of a notorious gang believed to be responsible for a series of ATM heists, including one at an ATM kiosk in the Sarai Rohilla police station area where nearly ₹15 lakh was stolen.
The modus operandi of this criminal syndicate, led by a mastermind identified as Azad, sets them apart from typical ATM thieves, according to police. Officials revealed that the gang members operated with a level of finesse rarely seen in such criminal activities.
“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,” said deputy commissioner of police (north) Sagar Singh 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.
