Miscreants flee with Rs 17 lakh from ATM

The Ludhiana (Rural) police have initiated a probe into an incident in which some miscreants attempted to steal cash and valuables from two banks. They succeeded in taking away cash amounting to Rs 17.14 lakh from the ATM at Punjab National Bank (PNB), after damaging CCTV cameras, in Lamme.

Though they had succeeded in breaking the locks of IndusInd Bank, no loss was reported by the bank authorities.

Raikot DSP Rachhpal Singh Dhindsa said an amount of Rs 17,14,500 was taken away from the PNB ATM.

Though the police are yet to ascertain the sequence of events leading to the incident, preliminary investigation by cops supervised by DSP Dhindsa, DSP (D) Sandeep Vedhera and forensic experts, revealed the miscreants had used a gas cutter to break open the machine.

Rishabh Aggarwal, branch manager, who reached the spot after receiving information from villagers in the morning, informed the police about the robbery.

As per information available with the bank authorities, the robbery was committed at 1.36 am on Wednesday.

The investigation further revealed no watchman was present at either bank when the miscreants came in. Though they had damaged some CCTV cameras and sprayed on the lens of the others, DSP (D) Vadhera said the robbers would be identified and arrested soon.