Unidentified suspects on Wednesday murdered the security guard of an automated teller machine (ATM) kiosk on Rajiv Gandhi Salai, near Kelambakkam, in an attempt to loot the cash.
The Axis Bank ATM in Kalliputhur, Padur village, located about 31 km from the city, was badly damaged, but the cash was intact. Police suspect the involvement of two or more men in the crime.
The incident came to light on Wednesday morning after the ATM's custodian, appointed by the bank, to supervise the facility, came to the kiosk and found the guard Satyaban Sahu (23) of Orissa, lying in a pool of blood.
“Immediately he dialled the emergency numbers displayed on the kiosk and alerted the bank authorities, who, in turn, informed the police,” said an official of Axis Bank who was at the spot.
The last transaction recorded at the ATM on Tuesday was at 10.38 p.m., the bank official said, adding that the money inside was intact. As the entry to the ATM (SIAN0143) located in a complex does not face the road, passers-by on the arterial road would not have heard the cries of the guard.
Speaking to The Hindu after visiting the scene of the crime, Superintendent of Police, Kancheepuram, Prem Anand Sinha said the robbery attempt could have been made around midnight. “We suspect two or three men to have attacked the guard with iron rods leaving him bleeding to death. They tried to break open the ATM but were unsuccessful,” he added.
The ATM kiosk does not have a CCTV camera. Bank officials said the kiosk was to be renovated in a month.
Keywords: ATM, robbery bid, Kelambakkam
As an NRI, the hardest part of making a decision to return to India with my family has been - not the daily discomforts or the weather or the bribes etc but really the callous disregard for the value of human life in India. From open manholes to overloaded buses, lessons never seem to be learnt from repetitive tragedies. Why does an ATM need a lone local guard? For a giant institution such as Axis Bank, how much will it cost to setup a remote monitoring station to guard the facility? Shouldn't this be a requirement for every such facility?
A human life was lost, a guy of 23 years, who was perhaps a bread earner of the family, he barely got a mention in the news. Our Journalist is more worried and focussed on the money in the machine being saved. What if a famous person or his relation was killed in that ATM, how would the piece of news look?
Is this what a leading daily of the country projects money saved is more important than a common man's life in this country?
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