18.35 lakh looted from PNB ATM in Hoshiarpur

Unidentified persons looted Rs 18.35 lakh from an ATM of Punjab National Bank on Bhogpur-Nanda Chor road in the wee hours of Wednesday. The incident came to light in the morning when the owner of the building who stayed at the above storey, saw some broken articles scattered on the road and informed the bank manager.

Unidentified persons looted Rs 18.35 lakh from an ATM of Punjab National Bank on Bhogpur-Nanda Chor road in the wee hours of Wednesday. The incident came to light in the morning when the owner of the building who stayed at the above storey, saw some broken articles scattered on the road and informed the bank manager.

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The ATM had been cut with a gas welder and emptied. Bank manager Banarasi Das Bhatia revealed that a sum of Rs 21 lakh had been transferred in the machine of which Rs 2.65 had been withdrawn by a customer; the rest of the money had been looted. No guard had been posted for the security, he informed.

The miscreants had pumped spray on the close circuit camera as well as the ATM screen to hide their identity before carrying out their job. Another ATM of the PNB was looted in January using the same modus operandi. The amount plundered at that time was nearly Rs 9 lakh. The police have not made any breakthrough in that case till date.

DSP (rural) H S Parmar revealed that as per CCTV footage, a man who had his face covered and was wearing green gloves, arrived at the spot around 3.30 am with a spray bottle in hand. He sprayed the camera after which nothing was recorded, he added. Bulhowal station house officer Harneel Singh claimed that a police party had patrolled the area around 1.30 am but did not see any suspected movement at that time. He revealed that a case had been registered and a search operation launched to nab the culprits. Later SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill and SP (detective) Jagmohan Singh also visited the site.