Sambalpur: Late at night, miscreants robbed Rs 20 lakh from the ATM
Sambalpur: The miscreants has robbed an ATM full of money. On late Thursday night, miscreants completely ransacked the ATM of the State Bank of India on the Sambalpur-Jharsuguda state highway. The police have informed that there is 20 lakh 67 thousand 5 hundred rupees in the ATM. Even though more than 15 hours have passed since the incident, the police have not been able to get the trace of the miscreants. It was raining last night. Taking advantage of this, the miscreants ransacked the entire ATM, which was only 500 meters away from Majhipali Police station. They also disconnected the camera in the counter. The police could not get any information till morning. After getting to know from the local people, the police reached the spot and since then they have launched a search operation. The scientific team has also reached the spot and is investigating. The police suspect that some gang from outside the state with the help of local robbers may have caused the incident. Sadar SDPO Pradeep Sahu informed that four to five people are believed to be involved.
On Thursday, 15 lakh rupees were loaded into the ATM by the bank. Apparently, the rogues were keeping an eye on it. As a result, the police suspect that the ATM was looted in a planned manner. The police suspect that the machine was taken by a plastic rope lying near the ATM. However, the miscreants arrange a pick-up van to take the ATM. The police found out that the car did not start due to a mechanical fault and left it on the road and took it to another vehicle.
Importantly, SBI’s ATMs was stolen. But the alert call did not go through. An alert call should be made to the head office immediately in case of any ATM shutdown or any mechanical fault. Then the bank authorities should get the information to check the ATM. But, as there was no alert call or message, the authorities did not know anything about the miscreants breaking the ATM. The bank authorities came to know about the ATM robbery incident after police information. Earlier in Themra too, some miscreant tried to break the ATM by cutting stones. No alert message was sent in that incident either.
Notably, there are many instances of ATMs being looted using chipping, pin fitting, and fraud. But incidents such as vandalizing an entire ATM to loot money are rare across the state. This is the second incident in the state after the ATM robbery incident in Bhubaneswar’s Dhauli police station. While the police did not get such a visible success in the case of the robbery of Sishupalgarh, this incident of last night in Sambalpur has become a call for the state police again.
