GURUGRAM: The crime branch of Gurugram police on Thursday claimed to have cracked around 17 cases of
ATM thefts and 13 other
theft cases with the arrest of a key member of a
gang that had been plundering teller machines of various banks across the city for over a year now. Police said the gang, which so far had stolen around Rs 1 crore from ATMs, meticulously planned their operations before carrying them out.
Itasq alias Mundal, a resident of Mewat, was arrested from Bilaspur area on May 14. Police said they seized Rs 10,000 and an ATM from his possession. Investigators said all members of the gang could be from Mewat. The gang, according to cops, uproots ATMs with the help of pick-up vans and a rope or a belt, loads these machines into the vans and cuts them open with
gas cutters to steal money. After looting the money, cops said, the gang used to dump these machines into water bodies after sharing money among them.
The case was handed over to sub inspector Surender Singh of the crime branch after an ATM was stolen in Sector 53 on May 7. Acting on a tip off, police rounded up Mundal from Bilaspur. “Mundal was sent to a three-day police remand. During the interrogation, he admitted that his gang has 8-10 people, all from Mewat, and targeted unmanned ATMs across Gurugram,” ACP (crime) Shamsher Singh said the gang was involved in 17 ATM thefts. They also stole tyres of high-end cars.
Police said the gang chose to target ATMs between 2am and 4am. The investigators identified Shahid alias Advani, a criminal and a resident of Mewat, as the mastermind of the gang. “The gang is specialised in ATM thefts, and for last one year they have been only targeting unmanned ATMs in Gurugram,” Singh said.
Elaborating the modus of operandi, Singh said the gang of burglars would come to Gurugram in stolen pick-up vans after dark. After reaching a pre-decided spot, they would tie the ATM machine with a belt, the other end of which would be tied to a pick-up van to uproot the machine. They then would load the machine into the van before fleeing. “They complete an operation in 8-10 minutes,” said Singh. The gang, he said, cut open the machines with gas cutters and distributed money among gang members before dumping the machines in water bodies.
The gang would always carry gas cutters and arms with them. “They used stolen vehicles to commit crimes,” said Singh. A preliminary investigation, he said, revealed that ATMs targeted by the thieves were not guarded during the night while guards were deployed there only during the day.
Three cops of the crime unit of Sector 17, including its in-charge, were injured on May 8 when over 70 villagers of Ghata Shamsabad in Mewat, around 80km from Gurugram, attacked a police team that had gone there to nab Sahid, the gang’s master mind. Sahid, a resident of Kharkhari village near Tauru, had earlier escaped from police custody in the first week of March. He carried a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head. Villagers, including women and children, pelted stones at the police team in an attempt to free Sahid. “We are trying to nab him,” Singh said.
