In a jungle manhunt straight out of a thriller, three ATM robbers were cornered and arrested from the dense Baikunthapur forest on the outskirts of Siliguri on Sunday, after spending hours dodging police, drones and the dangers of the wild.
Two of the robbers, Md Samsher Khan, 37, of Bihar, and Aslup Khan, 55, of Haryana, were arrested on Sunday morning. Late on Sunday evening, the police managed to arrest the third accused, Irfan Khan, 34, of Rajasthan.
The fourth member of the gang and the driver of their SUV are still traceless. The gang of four and the driver are accused in the brazen robbery of ₹54 lakh from a nationalised bank’s ATM kiosk in Boulmari, Jalpaiguri, early on Saturday.
A joint operation involving the Jalpaiguri police, Siliguri Metropolitan Police and the Baikunthapur forest division, aided by local residents, led to the three arrests so far.
According to Jalpaiguri SP Khandwahale Umesh Ganpat, the gang abandoned their SUV and fled into the forest after being chased by police.
“After a relentless 24-hour search through rough terrain in heavy rain our teams successfully located and arrested two members and recovered two bags with ₹15.48 lakh,” he said.
Sources involved in the operation revealed that the robbers, unfamiliar with the treacherous forest, were forced to camp in an isolated patch of the jungle overnight.
With law enforcers closing in from multiple directions, the constant buzz of surveillance drones above and increasing fear of encountering wild animals, they abandoned their attempt to go deeper into the wilderness.
“The use of drones gave us a tactical edge in scanning the vast forest area. The rain delayed our movements, but also made the conditions of the robbers miserable. Soon, they had nowhere left to run,” said a source.
Police suspect the robbers had prior experience with ATM mechanisms and could be former private security guards or technicians. The group had used a gas cutter to break into the ATM kiosk and escaped with ₹54 lakh in cash in a white Scorpio SUV.
They had then managed to give multiple police vehicles the slip and finally abandoned the SUV to enter the forest.
The duo arrested in the morning were produced before the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Jalpaiguri, where police sought their remand for interrogation. The court granted 10 days in police custody.
The arrest marks a breakthrough in what authorities believe could be a well planned interstate heist gone wrong and foiled not just by strategy and technology, but by the unforgiving terrain of the jungle.