In a daring attempt to rob an Automated Teller Machine (ATM), a young man used explosives to try to blow up the machine in Tiruporur, about 35 kilometres from the city, on Old Mamallapuram Road, past midnight on Saturday.
A police inspector attached to the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad was injured while attempting to defuse an explosive left behind by the suspect. Kancheepuram district police sources said the suspect reached the ATM belonging to State Bank of Mysore, functioning from a private building, on a motorcycle, a little past 12.30 a.m.
Investigating policemen attached to the Tiruporur police station, who have picked up some clues, said the suspect, wearing denim jeans and a T-shirt, had masked his face with a plastic bag. He tied explosives around the cash vault and triggered it to explode. However, he was unable to break open the cash box.
After a resident, who was woken up by the sound of the explosion, came to the spot, the suspect sped away on a motorcycle. On receiving information, policemen reached the ATM and recovered a live explosive device, left behind by the suspect.
In the morning, bank officials came to the ATM and confirmed that there was no damage to the cash box or loss of money. On Sunday, they had placed a large amount of cash in the vault.
C.Vijayakumar, Superintendent of Police, Kancheepuram, said that inspector Swaminathan sustained minor injuries on his hands while attempting to defuse the low-intensity explosive that was made with petroleum jelly. The culprit had used some small voltage capacity batteries to ignite the explosive material – called `flurry’ – normally used to trigger low-intensity blasts in mines.
