COIMBATORE: The judicial magistrate court here has convicted seven people for stealing Rs 30.05 lakh from two ATMs and an attempt to burgle another ATM at Peelamedu in the city in December 2017.
The convicts are Mubarak, 30, Mousam Khan, 34, Zulfiqar, 25, Amithkumar, 25, Zubair, 32, Zuber, 19 and Ameen, 35. Magistrate N Gnanasambandam passed the order on Monday.
On December 9, 2017, the accused had burgled Rs 3.35 lakh from an ATM on Avinashi Road and Rs 26.70 lakh from an ATM at Thaneerpandal in the city. Within four days, the Coimbatore police, along with Namakkal and Salem police, arrested eight people – five from the Keerambur check post in Namakkal and three from the Seelanaickenpatti check post in Salem. The burglary mastermind was arrested in Rajasthan in 2018.
Police seized Rs 6.88 lakh, two cars, a truck, a gun, bullets, cellphone, gas cutter and weapons from them.
The court awarded nine years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 30,000 to the seven people for burgling two ATMs. They were awarded six years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3,000 for attempting to burgle the third ATM. In addition to the above punishments, Zuber was awarded two years of imprisonment and Rs 5,000 as fine for possessing a weapon in the two burglaries and two years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 for the same offence in the burglary attempt. TNN