Police recover the stolen SBI ATM cash iron chest near Berhampur on Saturday. Pictures by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, Nov. 6: The city police have recovered the safe box of State Bank of India’s ATM machine two days after it was looted from the Industrial Estate area here. The police have also detained seven persons and are interrogating them.

In a very unusual incident, the thieves had taken away the ATM machine along with the safe box on Tuesday midnight.

“We recovered the safe box from a paddy field on Ankuli-Gaunju road near NH- 5 about two kilometres away from the spot where the ATM was installed. The police recovered it yesterday night. A total amount of Rs 14.29 lakh was kept in the safe box when the thieves fled with it. The entire cash amount was found intact. No doubt the thieves have attempted to forcibly open the safe box but failed. There is damage mark on the ATM box. The ATM machine and the safe box are now under police custody,” said inspector in-charge B.N. Pur police station Dipak Mishra.“We are investigating the details of the case and it would be solved very soon,” said Mishra.

The safe box weighs 3.5 quintal and involvement of about 10 persons is being apprehended. A vehicle must have been used in the crime to transport the safe box from the ATM counter, said Mishra.

Sub-divisional police officer Sarat Mahapatra said they had detained seven persons including some staff of the Bhubaneswar-based Cash Managing Service (CMS) which is entrusted to fill cash in all the ATMs across the state. “We are interrogating them,” he said.

Though the ATM counter was installed on October 13, both the internal and external camera of the ATM counter were lying defunct since the afternoon of October 18. There is no CCTV footage in both the cameras in the ATM counters since October 18 afternoon,” said Mahapatra.

Police officers rushed to the spot with a sniffer dog after a farmer saw the unusual ATM box lying in a paddy field last night. The police lifted the 3.5-quintal safe box with the help of a crane and brought it to the B. N. Pur police station amidst tight security.