Two men who broke into an ATM machine on Wednesday night after shutting themselves inside the kiosk in Hyderabad were caught red handed by the Sangareddy police who were waiting for them outside the ATM Kiosk. The two men were taken into custody from the scene of the crime.
CCTV footage showed two men wearing masks, armed with a blow torch, cutting tools and a gas cylinder, succeeding in opening an HDFC ATM machine at Krisna Reddy pet, under Ameenpur police station limits in Telangana's Sangareddy district, within the limits of Hyderabad. The two men, including one wearing a beanie cap, had shuttered down the kiosk halfway, to try and break open the ATM machine. However, much to their dismay, they found the Sangareddy police waiting for them outside the kiosk.
A video of the police nabbing the two accused show several police officers standing near the shutter, which was half raised. At first, the man wearing the beanie cap is made to lie facedown and extend his hand. The police officers tie his hand with a rope. The second man taken into custody crawled out on all fours from the ATM kiosk behind him.
Speaking to TNM, a police official from the Ameenpur police station said, "Many bank ATMs have a system in place, where if any tampering is being done, or any wire is being cut, they get notified. This ATM too, had that facility in place."
"As soon as they were notified, they informed us and we sent a few police personnel to apprehend the accused red-handed. They are in custody and a case will be registered soon," he added.
In February this year, in a similar incident, an ATM machine was stolen by six unidentified men in Rudraram village in Sangareddy district.
Authorities at the time said that the machine had Rs 2.27 lakh cash in it but the thieves couldn’t break it open, and therefore, they abandoned it around 3 km away from the ATM centre. The accused were later identified using CCTV footage.