Kalyan police detain three persons in ATM theft case; team sent to Haryana to trace others

Kalyan police detain three persons in ATM theft case; team sent to Haryana to trace others; police believe that there are 15-16 members in the gang involved in the ATM robberies; on Wednesday morning, some of them also broke into an ATM in Mira Road and robbed ₹7 lakh

The Kolsewadi police have detained three persons in the ATM robbery case, which has links to other robberies across the State. A team is in search of others from the gang, who the police believe are from Haryana.

The ATM in Kalyan that was robbed on Sunday. Kalyan police detained three persons in the theft. A police team has been sent to Haryana to trace others accused. (HT FILE PHOTO)

Officials believe that there are 15-16 members in the gang. On Wednesday morning, some of them also broke into an ATM in Mira Road.

On Sunday, two ATMs in Kalyan were robbed of cash worth ₹27.68 lakh. The police claimed that the modus operandi of using gas cutters and obstructing the CCTV with paint was common in other thefts over the last six months in different places. They had warned that the next target would be Thane and Mumbai, which proved right after the gang broke into an ATM in Mira Road and looted ₹7 lakh.

A senior police officer said, “We cannot reveal the details of the detained persons as inquiry is going on. We are suspecting the gang is similar as other than their modus operandi they are targeting ATMs of the same bank due to lack of security. None of these ATM centres had a watchman and enough working CCTV cameras. If we find a glitch on the security part, we are going to book the bank authority too.”

The police have sent a team to Haryana to trace the others accused in the case.