Bhubaneswar, May 16: Unidentified goons broke open an ATM at Taraboi village in Jatni on the outskirts of the city late last night and decamped with cash.

The incident has left cops searching for answers as the goons broke open the cash-dispensing unit by accessing its password. The looters did not damage the machine. Police suspect that this could only be done by insiders as the cash vault password could only be known by them.

The matter came to the bank officials' notice this morning when they found that there was no cash in the ATM.

The bank officials lodged a complaint with Jatni police this morning, following which senior police officers and forensic experts rushed to the spot.

"We suspect the involvement of insiders, especially of employees of the private firm entrusted with the job of loading cash in the ATM, as the currency chamber was opened by feeding the password," said an officer investigating the case.

However, the officer said they would also look at any possibility of involvement of bank officials in the crime. "Only the private firm entrusted with cash loading job and officials of the bank concerned are in the know of the cash vault's password. We will interrogate the bank officials and the officials of the cash loading firm to find clues," said the investigating officer.<>

On March 26 police had arrested one member of a four member Hitech gang involved in stealing of cash of around Rs 50 lakh from ATM counters in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri without breaking the ATM machine. The accused Ajay Choudhury from Uttarakhand and the gang has been committing the crime by hacking the ATM machine through malware, a software designed to gain access to a computer system.

On March 5 the commissionerate police had convened a meeting with bankers of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar asking them to upgrade the system used in ATM machines besides asking the bank authorities to deploy security guards at the unmanned The accused Ajay Choudhury from Uttarakhand and the gang has been committing the crime by hacking the ATM machine through malware, which is software designed to gain access to a computer system.

On March 5, the twin cities police had convened a meeting with bankers of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar asking them to upgrade the system used in ATM machines besides asking the bank authorities to deploy security guards at the unmanned ATM kiosks.

All the ATM counters in Bhubaneswar remained open despite several alert messages regarding "ransomware" virus attack on the ATM software doing the rounds in various social networking sites and mobile applications.

Though the cyber cell of the state denied any reports of cyber attack in the state so far, it said that they have sent an advisory as a precautionary measure.