Bhadrak: Four bike-borne youths waylaid two staff of an ATM cash-loading agency — who too were on a bike — and looted Rs5.5lakh from them at knife point before speeding away from the spot at a place under Dhamnagar police limits here Monday night.
Sources said, the two staff were on their way to an ATM kiosk at Chudakuti market under Dhamnagar police limits carrying Rs 5.5 lakh Monday night. Four miscreants on two bikes were suspected to be following them.
At a comparatively less crowded place, they stopped the staff and looted the cash bag from them at knife point. Before they could raise an alarm, the miscreants decamped from the spot with the booty.
On being informed, Dhamnagar police reached the spot and launched an investigation. The two employees were also quizzed by the cops.
It is worth mentioning here that the home ministry notified rules relating to loading of cash into ATMs and cash transportation in the month of August 2018. The rules have it that no ATM should be replenished with cash after 9 pm in cities and no cash van should carry cash more than Rs 5 crore on a single trip. And in case of rural areas, no ATMs will be loaded post 6 pm.
Here in this case, the rules were violated. First, the two staff going to replenish the cash took no security men with them. Second, they were going to replenish cash in night, albeit it is not yet clear regarding the exact time when they were going. But it was well past 6pm.
All these questions are now being raised by local people.
Last year, assailants looted lakhs of rupees from bank staff who were on their way to a UCO Bank branch at Jalanga on the outskirts of Bhadrak.