Quick action by the Mumbai control room of the State Bank of India in alerting Bengaluru police prevented yet another ATM robbery and made way for the arrest of the two culprits, a wrestler and his associate from Punjab.
The staff at the Mumbai control room in the wee hours of Sunday had alerted the police after noticing blank visuals from the kiosk as the robbers had reportedly stuck chewing gum and sprayed black paint on the CCTV cameras to avoid getting detected.
Media reports said Harsh Aror, a wrestler and his associate Samarjoth Singh, were arrested by police on Sunday while they were trying to get away with Rs 13 lakh of stolen cash.
Times of India quoted DCP West Ramesh Banoth as saying that the ATM kiosk on Mysuru Road opposite BHEL, was targeted between 1:20 and 1:50 am.
He said after entering the kiosk, the duo wore helmets and blackened the cameras, This is when the Mumbai control room staff alerted the police and police on Hoysala vehicles left to check SBI ATMs in the stretch between JJ Nagar to Rajarajeshwari Nagar as the control room could not identify the particular kiosk.
It was then that Chandra Layout Inspector Brijesh Matthew who was out on night patrol spotted the BHEL kiosk and found something was burning even though the shutter was down. During the confrontation, two police constables were injured after the robbers attacked with an iron rod. But they were soon overpowered.
Police caught them red-handed with the stolen money, along with gas cutters and oxygen masks amongst other evidence.
With their arrest, police have also solved three other cases of ATM robberies.
Police said this was incidentally their fourth attempt at robbing an ATM. They had successfully robbed an ATM in Parappana Agrahara recently. Their other two attempts proved to be futile.
The duo had apparently taken to robbing ATMs after being inspired by YouTube videos.
