Photos of destroyed currency notes of denomination ₹2,000 and ₹500 found inside an ATM in Assam’s Tinsukia district have gone viral in social media.
When the ATM belonging to the State Bank of India, which was reported out of order since May 20, was opened for maintenance on June 11, staff found bank notes amounting to ₹12.38 lakh completely destroyed. Officials suspect mice would have destroyed the notes since some dead rodents were found inside the ATM.
FIS Global Business Solutions, a private security firm, had deposited ₹500 and ₹2,000 notes amounting ₹29.48 lakh on May 19 in the ATM located at Laipuli area. The machine is said to have been out of service from the next day.
The SBI has lodged compliant at Hijuguri police station.
Tinsukia district Superintendent of Police, Mugdhajyoti Mahanta, though a formal case is yet to be registered, an entry (number 246 dated June 14) was made in the Station Diary.
Mr. Mahanta said the ATM was not functioning since May 20 and the maintanance company had called up its engineer from Kolkata to repair it.
“When the engineer and other officials opened the ATM on June 11, they found destroyed notes and also found a dead mouse inside the ATM,” Mr. Mahanta said.
Officials could recover currency notes amounting to ₹17.10 lakh without any damage.