Kanas/Khurda: Unidentified miscreants struck at two ATM kiosks of a private bank at Jankia Bazaar Square on the New Jagannath Sadak in Kanas and at Nirakarpur town in Khurda, late Saturday and decamped with cash around Rs 38 lakh.
Although, Axis Bank officials are yet to confirm the exact amount of cash missing from the two kiosks, sources said the desperadoes made away with around Rs 27 lakh from the Jankia Bazaar kiosk and Rs 11 lakh from the one in Nirakarpur town after cutting these open using sophisticated gas cutters.
In the Jankia Bazaar incident, bank officials at their Mumbai headquarters witnessed the entire episode via the CCTV cameras in the ATM and alerted the owner of the complex housing the ATM and the Kanas police station.
However, before the landlord or the police could reach the spot, the miscreants had decamped with the cash. “The burglars entered the ATM room late Saturday and downed the shutters. They cut open the ATM kiosk using gas cutters and made away with the cash,” a senior Axis Bank officer said.
On being informed, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Sambhunath Seth rushed to the spot and began a probe. Later, Kanas inspector in-charge (IIC) Sanjay Kumar Nayak, Pipli sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Dilip Kumar Tripathy and a forensic team from Puri reached the spot and began investigations.
“A case (72/18) has been registered in this regard and investigations are on,” Kanas police said.
In the Nirakarpur town incident, police said the robbers had entered the ATM room by breaking the lock and looted the cash from the ATM machine using a gas cutter and later fled the scene after damaging the CCTV installed inside the ATM room. They also took away the hard disc of the CCTV.
“Although the exact amount of cash looted from the ATM machine hasn’t been calculated yet, the bank officials claimed that they had deposited Rs 15 lakh in the ATM machine a few days ago,” a senior police officer said, adding the exact amount looted by the miscreants will be known Monday after the bank opens and verifies the ATM transactions.