Cuttack, Oct. 17: Goons looted Rs 16 lakh from an ATM of the State Bank of India (SBI) at Gandarpur yesterday.
Police suspect that a professional inter-state criminal gang is behind the loot. Gas cutters were used to break open the machine. The gang also neutralised security features, including the CCTV camera.
The cops suspect that two to three criminals were involved in the loot.
"There is a similarity in the modus operandi of the gang. Cash was looted in a similar fashion from two SBI ATMs in Balasore in September," said assistant commissioner of police Trinath Mishra.
Goons had looted several lakhs from Remuna and Mathasahi in Balasore on September 5. They had also broke open the vaults of the ATM and looted cash, Mishra said.
Sources said the gang involved in the incident in Cuttack knew everything about the machine and how to break open it without damaging the cash.
The goons made off with the cash by cutting the machine from the front and then its internal cash trays that are protected by password, which is either with the manager or the agencies entrusted to load cash in the ATM.
The criminals had also made the CCTV defunct by snapping its wire.
However, the cops have retrieved the hard disk and are already in the process of analysing the video footage, said inspector in charge of Chauliaganj police station Ajay Das.
"We have retrieved the hard disk. However, whether it has any footage of the criminals entering the kiosk will be known after further examination," said Das.
Das told The Telegraph that a team of forensic experts had conducted a spot verification today.
The cops said the ATM was last loaded with Rs 5 lakh on last Tuesday and the bank officials claimed that there was a balance of Rs 11 lakh in the machine.
"I was going for a morning walk when I found the shutter of the ATM open. I also noticed smoke inside the kiosk. I initially thought that a fire has broken out due to a short circuit," said Sarat Pradhan, an eyewitness.
Pradhan is also the owner of the place where the ATM is located and he was the first to report the matter to local bank authorities in the morning.
The incident has also brought to the fore lapses on the part of the bank authorities, who are not appointing security guards at ATMs in various parts of the city.
Senior police officials said specific instructions had been issued to various banks for installing CCTVs as well as deploying security guards at ATMs.
