Keonjhar: Police have cracked an ATM loot case in Barbil by arresting three persons, including a bank employee.

On April 15, the accused had robbed Rs 2.47 lakh from the chest of an State Bank of India ATM at Odisha Mining Corporation Chowk in Barbil Industrial Township. After breaking open the chest, they managed to loot the cash. Later, they vandalised the closed circuit camera installed at the kiosk. To escape detection,, they had also set the camera on fire, said Barbil police station inspector Jagannath Mallick.

Like the recent loot of a private bank in Mayurbhanj district, the robbery executed here was masterminded and executed by a bank employee, police said.

"We were virtually clueless. Hopes of cracking the robbery were minimal because of the fact that the accused had badly damaged the closed-circuit television camera. However, we could trace the culprits from clues in the damaged camera," a police official said.

"The police had requested the bank to depute a team of technical experts to verify if the camera could throw some light on the crime. The technical team did a commendable job in eliciting vital clues. They could retrieve data and visual footage from the damaged camera," the police official said. After thorough verification of the recorded visual footage, the accused were identified as Pankaj Moharana, who worked at the local State Bank branch. He planned and executed the crime with the help of two security personnel, Prasant Patra and Raju Patra.

Rs 1.85 lakh of the stolen Rs 2.47 lakh has been recovered from them. The accused persons, who have confessed to the crime, were later remanded to judicial custody, the police said.