The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Guard held for cash theft at ATM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 29, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Guard held for cash theft at ATM

Staff Reporter

Customer left behind his card in the machine Police recovered entire cash of Rs. 18,000 intact

TAMBARAM : A security guard has been arrested on charges of robbing cash from an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) facility at a petrol filling station in Meenambakkam, minutes after a customer left the premises, leaving the card behind in the machine.

Police also recovered the cash that the 32-year-old guard had hidden in his house.

R. Ramesh, 29, of Macmillan Colony in Nanganallur and employed in a private firm in Guindy, came to the petrol filling station on the Grand Southern Trunk Road at Meenambakkam on Wednesday morning. In order to pay for the petrol, he entered the kiosks housing two ATMs of a leading private sector bank and withdrew Rs. 300 at 8.37 a.m. Leaving behind the card in the machine, Ramesh left the filling station.

Five minutes later, he received a message on his mobile phone that there was a balance of only Rs. 90 in his bank account. A panicked Ramesh realised he had left behind the ATM card and alerted one of his friends and asked him to go to the filling station, even as he rushed back. A security guard told him that he had come on duty just now after relieving his colleague Sagu.

Mr. Ramesh was unable to locate the ATM card. He lodged a complaint with the Meenambakkam police station and the police picked up Sagu on suspicion. On interrogation he is reported to have confessed that he had committed the crime.

Police also recovered the entire cash of Rs. 18,000 intact, which he had hidden behind the EB meter at his house in Kannan Colony in Pazhavanthangal.

Investigators said Sagu had noticed Ramesh exiting the ATM facility, leaving behind the card in the machine. As Ramesh had not logged out properly, Sagu found it easy to make the large cash withdrawal.

Hailing from Nandigram in Orissa, Sagu has been with the private security agency for the past seven years and on duty in this ATM at the petrol filling station for the past two years.

Sagu was arrested under Section 380 of the Indian Penal Code (theft in building).

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