Bid to break open PNB ATM at village

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 9

Two unidentified miscreants made an attempt to loot the branch of Punjab National Bank, situated at Kotli Than Singh village near Dhilwan in Jalandhar, in the wee hours today.

The miscreants were only able to damage the ATM lying within the bank premises, but failed to decamp with any cash or valuables from the place.

No night security guard was deployed by the bank at the site.

Following the incident, the police rounded up several notorious history-sheeters for questioning, but the accused were yet to be identified.

The entire incident was recorded on the CCTV cameras installed inside and outside the bank’s premises. However, the faces of the miscreants were covered with cloth, making it difficult for the police to identify them.

Bank manager Dharminder said the miscreants had tried to open the ATM only and didn’t move towards the strong room. “No loss of cash or any other important documents was reported in the incident,” the manager added.

The manager said he was informed by the landlords of the bank’s building living behind the bank in the morning that grills were lying broken, and later the police were called at the spot.

When asked why no night security guard was deployed in the bank, the manager said there was no provision to deploy night guard in the bank.

As per the CCTV footage, it was noticed that the miscreants, after breaking open the grill of the window of the manager’s office, entered the bank at 12.48 am on Tuesday. Initially, one person entered the bank and started ransacking the premises. Within a few minutes, another person entered the bank.

It could be seen in the CCTV footage that the duo was only carrying screwdrivers which they used to open the ATM. They could only manage to break open the outside sheet of the ATM, but failed to reach to the cash chest where over Rs 4 lakh was lying.

After struggling to open the ATM for around two hours, miscreants came out of the bank at 2.50 am and fled.

ASP, Adampur, Vivek Sheel Soni, said it seemed to be the handiwork of some unprofessional robbers who struggled for two hours to open the ATM with screwdrivers.

The Punjab Police have been telling the banks to deploy night security guards at ATMs and banks to prevent robberies and several meetings with banks officials have also been held on the issue. However, many bank officials were saying that there was no provision to keep night guards at banks in the banking sector.