In a shocking incident, unidentified robbers allegedly cut the Automated Teller Machine of a public sector bank at Geeta Colony in East Delhi in the early hours of Thursday and made off with Rs.23 lakh in cash.
The incident came to light when security guard Ramesh Kumar (52) reached the Gurdwara Road ATM of Punjab National Bank around 7 a.m. He found that the vault of the ATM had been cut with a gas cutter and the cash was missing. He reported the matter to the police and a case was registered.
“The security guard deployed at the booth had gone on leave before Holi and not returned. Ramesh was deployed as his replacement, but he did not turn up for duty on Wednesday night. As per the record, the last transaction at the ATM booth was carried out at 11.15 p.m. on Wednesday. The robbers struck any time between the last transaction and the time when the guard came in the morning,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Prabhakar.
The police said that there was no camera in the ATM booth and the in-built closed-circuit television camera in the ATM machine only works when a plastic card is inserted in it.
The ATM had been replenished with Rs.28 lakh three days ago and Rs.5 lakh had been withdrawn before the robbery took place, the police said.
“Ramesh Kumar is being questioned in this connection and fingerprints have been lifted from the machine. It seems the robbers had a tip-off,” said a senior police officer.
