New Delhi: A bank manager and her husband helped foil an attempted ATM robbery in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district after an e-surveillance alert detected suspicious
activity late on Monday night. The quick response also helped protect cash worth more than Rs 16 lakh, police said.
The incident took place at around 2.13 am at a UCO Bank ATM in Nagaur. Two men allegedly entered the booth and started damaging the ATM machine in an attempt to steal the cash.
The bank’s e-surveillance system detected the suspicious activity and triggered an alert. Gautam Nagar, the security officer for the bank’s Ajmer region, received the alert and informed branch manager Sarita Chaudhary at around 2 am.
Chaudhary lives with her family in residential quarters above the bank. After receiving the information, she immediately went to the ATM with her husband. The couple found two men inside the booth and shut the shutter from outside, trapping them inside. They then informed the police.
Two accused arrested from ATM booth
Police reached the spot shortly afterwards, opened the shutter and arrested the two suspects. They were identified as Bharat Prajapat, a Mundwa resident who runs a tea stall, and Komal Kumar Rajput, a Bihar native who works at Prajapat’s shop.
According to police, the accused had arrived at the ATM on a motorcycle belonging to another person. They were carrying equipment allegedly meant to break open the machine.
The two men had damaged the upper cover of the ATM and applied grease to the CCTV camera. They also cut the camera’s connectivity wires in an attempt to avoid being identified. However, they failed to open the cash compartment.
Rs 16 lakh cash was inside ATM
The ATM contained Rs 16,00,900 in cash, according to the bank. Chaudhary said the money had been loaded into the machine ahead of a proposed bank strike on Monday.
“Both accused were arrested from inside the ATM booth along with the equipment they had used during the attempted robbery,” Station House Officer Purbaram said.
Police have seized the equipment used in the attempted robbery and are investigating the case further. The quick alert from the surveillance system, followed by the bank manager and her husband’s response, prevented the accused from escaping with the cash.
