Patna: Three incidents of cash loot from ATMs in one night have set alarm bells ringing in the state capital.
Rs 9 lakh was looted from a State Bank of India ATM in Bhagwat Nagar under the Agamkuan police station area at 1.31 am, Rs 10 lakh from an SBI ATM at Sector Park under Patrakar Nagar police station area at 2.18 am, and Rs 10,500 was looted from a Bank of Baroda ATM near Maner Bazar at 3.45 am on Monday, August 27.
In all three loots, the robbers broke open the ATMs with gas cutters and fled with the cash within 25 minutes.
Police sources said the gang ATMs located in isolated areas with no night guards. The cops believe the gang surveys the ATMs before targeting them.
Patrakar Nagar police station house officer Sanjeet Kumar Sinha said: "Based on CCTV footage, we have come to know that the robbers had reached the spot in an SUV, and were carrying gas cutter. As there was no guard in the ATM, the robbers downed the shutters and within 20 minutes decamped with Rs 10 lakh."
Though the cops claim they have got some leads, the loots also belie police claims on night patrolling, given that the gang is moving around the town with a gas cutter and breaking open ATM kiosks. And it was local residents who alerted the cops about the Sector Park ATM loot - no police party passed through the area.
The cops are, however, blaming the banks for not having proper security for ATMs.
"The gang targets ATMs where there are no security guards or alarm systems," said Ramakant Prasad, sub divisional police officer, Phulwari. "The banks should install alarm system or sensors in the ATM machines so that if there is an attempt to break the machine senior bank officials could be alerted."
The banks, in turn, say safety and security of ATMs at night is a law and order issue.
"When the ATM shutter is down during night it is duty of respective police station to look after the security of ATMs," said a senior official with SBI here.
He accepted that in both SBI ATMs looted neither were there any night guards or any alarm system.
Recently, the Patna police busted a gang involved in looting more than Rs 60 lakh from ATMs in Patna, Nalanda and Bhojpur district. The gang had learnt the tricks of breaking ATMs from YouTube. The gang would physically flee with the ATM kiosks, take them to an isolated place and breaking them open.