Four of gang try to steal money from ATM in Noida, one nabbed

A man in his late twenties was arrested by Noida police on Saturday morning for allegedly attempting to cut open an ATM in Sector 126 following an “encounter”. Three of his accomplices are still on the run, the police said.

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The suspect was identified as one Tahir Husain, who if from Haryana. According to police officers, he and his three accomplices were in the middle of cutting open an ATM at a kiosk in Raipur village in Sector 126 when they were intercepted by a PCR team. The Expressway police station team had received a tip about the suspects trying to steal an ATM.

“As soon as they saw the police movement, the suspects tied to flee in their Santro car. When the PCR started following them, they abandoned their vehicle and started running on foot. A team from Sector 49 police station, that was out working on a different lead, came across the suspects. In a joint effort of police from both stations, the suspects were chased, and after feeling cornered, they started firing at the police team. Husain was injured in the retaliatory firing, while the others managed to escape,” said additional deputy commissioner of police, zone 1, Kumar Ranvijay Singh.

The police suspect that the remaining suspects may have gone to Haryana via Delhi. Husain was taken to the district hospital for treatment.

ADCP Singh said the four suspects are a part of an inter-state ATM theft gang. “They have been involved in many ATM thefts across various states, and we suspect that they were also behind the attempt to steal an ATM from Harola village on September 1. The modus operandi in the two cases is very similar as gas cutters were being used in the same fashion in the two cases,” said the ADCP. On the night of September 1, an another ATM was taken from Ghaziabad’s Vasundhra, but the gang’s involvement in that incident is yet to be established, the police said.

A country-made pistol, Santro car, gas cutters and other tools were recovered by the police.

On September 5, two men from a different gang were arrested by the Noida police in connection with an ATM theft from Gijhore village on August 16.