Police grill SBI ATM guard

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 23

In the robbery case at the SBI ATM from where miscreants had decamped with several lakhs, the Jalandhar police have been interrogating the ATM guard Babloo.

He was rounded up by the police immediately after the incident came to light. However, police sources said the role of the guard was yet to be established in the crime.

The robbers had targeted the ATM of the SBI bank located in the Maqsudan area in Jalandhar on Sunday. Suspecting the role of the night guard, he was rounded up by the police for investigation. Since the ATM was situated in Maqsudan Mandi, the police today also questioned some fruit and vegetable sellers.

The bank authorities were yesterday not confirming the exact amount stolen from the ATM, but today they revealed that Rs 24 lakh was stolen from the ATM. “On Saturday night, private security employed for operating the ATM had replenished Rs 10 lakh. Prior to it, there was around Rs 14 lakh available in the ATM. Even in the report submitted by the private security agency to the bank, the agency claimed that Rs 24 lakh was stolen from the ATM,” a SBI bank official said.

DCP Jalandhar Rajinder Singh said police teams were working on various theories to crack the case and they were hopeful that soon the robbers would be behind bars.

Police officials said they were facing difficulty in releasing the sketches of the robbers, as the only person seen in the CCTV footage had entered the ATM wearing a helmet.

Interestingly, the city police had busted a gang of ATM robbers a few days ago and three of its members were arrested by the police who were accused of trying to break open around 12 ATMs of various banks with gas-cutters in Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Jalandhar, respectively. The trio was on police remand till Sunday.