Jandiala (Jalandhar): Nine days after unidentified persons, including a girl, decamped with a Punjab National Bank (PNB) ATM containing `4.46 lakh at Sarhali village on Jandiala-Phagwara road, the miscreants on Tuesday looted `9.98 lakh from State Bank of India ATM at Jandiala, 22 km from Jalandhar.
Surprisingly, the kiosk didn’t had any surveillance camera and the robbers sprayed black foam on the in-built camera of the ATM.
However, a CCTV camera mounted outside the shop of a scrap dealer on the other side of the road captured movements of two cars outside the kiosk.
In the footage, a grey-coloured Toyota Innova is seen stopping outside the kiosk at 1.28 am and there is also the sound of some persons (not in the footage) alighting from the car. At 1.38 am, the sound of locks of shutter being hit is heard. At 1.50 am, a red-grey Mahindra Scorpio is seen arriving and at 2.05 am, there is a loud sound of metal doors being smashed and the ATM being uprooted. The cars are then seen going towards Phagwara.
{{/usCountry}}In the footage, a grey-coloured Toyota Innova is seen stopping outside the kiosk at 1.28 am and there is also the sound of some persons (not in the footage) alighting from the car. At 1.38 am, the sound of locks of shutter being hit is heard. At 1.50 am, a red-grey Mahindra Scorpio is seen arriving and at 2.05 am, there is a loud sound of metal doors being smashed and the ATM being uprooted. The cars are then seen going towards Phagwara.
{{/usCountry}}Police received the information about the incident at 7 am following which senior cops, including deputy commissioner of police Sandeep Kumar Sharma, additional deputy commissioner of police-II Amrik Singh Powar, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) investigation Harjinder Singh and others, including forensic experts, rushed to the spot.
The empty ATM box and a central processing unit (CPU) were recovered from a paddy field in Dheriya village near Nakodar, around 5 km away from Jandiala.
“It looks like a handiwork of the same gang that looted a PNB ATM at Sarhali village on September 26,” said police sources.
In the PNB ATM theft case, police recovered the empty box from Ferozepur on September 28.
When HT asked SBI manager Anshul Duggal about missing CCTV cameras in the kiosk, he failed to elicit a reply.
The residents of town are blaming police for its failure to maintain law and order situation in the area.
On Tuesday, an unidentified man was found damaging an ATM in Lambra, 11 km from here. He, however, failed to loot anything.
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Jalandhar-Phagwara belt is theft-prone
Sept 26: Miscreants decamp with a PNB ATM containing `4.46 lakh at Sarhali village on Jandiala-Phagwara road
Sept 15: Robbers loot `3.34 lakh from an ATM in Phagwara.
•Sept 14: Miscreants target SBI ATM at Ghas Mandi, Jalandhar.
•July 14: Robbers break open an SBoP ATM with gas-cutters at Ibban village and decamped with over `3 lakh.
July 7: Robbers strike at an unguarded PNB ATM at Kang Sabhu village near Lambra on Jalandhar-Nakodar road; `2 lakh looted
•March 22: Miscreants target SBI ATM in Maqsudan area of Jalandhar and loot `24 lakh