KOLKATA: A gas-cutter gang looted three ATMs — the first near airport, the second on Kona Expressway, and the third along NH-6. They smeared the CCTV cameras with black paint and then neatly prised open the cash vaults. The gang looted Rs 10 lakh from the first ATM in Michael Nagar near airport early on Tuesday and managed to escape minutes before police reached the spot.
While ATM loots took place at Narayanpur, Bagnan and some other areas of North 24 Parganas and Howrah in the past month, this is the first time that such an incident took place near Kolkata and in which an ATM’s cash vault was neatly cut to get access to the cash cartridges inside.
The Bidhannagar Commissionerate’s police control room received a call from the bank’s vigilance team in Mumbai at 4.17am alerting that they were not receiving any live visuals from the ATM for some time. The ATM CCTV, even when not in use, sends periodic images to the Mumbai-based ATM control centre of the bank. An alarm that sets off after any physical damage is made to the machine also alerts local police and a private security agency that services the ATM. The control room alerted airport police, who immediately sent a team for inspection. “Our officers found the ATM counter’s shutter down. One of them lifted it and found a counter filled with smoke and a burning smell. Reinforcements were called and we found the front panel of the ATM was open and cash was looted from there. The CCTV was painted with black colour,” said the officer.
The second ATM was targeted near Dhulagarh on Kona Expressway and the third along the National Highway at Bagnan. Police have retrieved a few unclear images from the motion sensor enabled CCTV cameras and will cross check them with footages at toll plaza. Investigators say the modus operandi — and the speed in which the ATMs were opened by gas cutters — resemble a series of such heists in Delhi and Noida recently.