Sonepur: The Sonepur police on Tuesday arrested five persons in connection with last week's sensational dacoity case where miscreants snatched away Rs 21 lakh cash from an ATM Officer (ATMO) at Bhagalpur square under Birmaharajpur Police limits in the district on March 17 after holding him at gun point .
The accused have been identified as Uttam Kumar Dip (21) son of Santosh Dip from Ambapakhal under Manmunda Police Station, Haribol Sandha (30) son of Dagar Sandha from Khaliamunda village under Kantamal police station, Ambuja Behera (28) son of Abhi Behera from Gohirpita village under Manmunda police limits, Abdul Shardul Gaigoria (32) son of Sandheswar, also known as Supteswar Gaigoria from Digi village under Manmunda police station and Sunil Kumar Moharana (28) son of Sudhansu Sekhar Moharana from Ghodaghatpada village in Sonepur.
The police recovered Rs. 15,30,000 of the stolen cash, five motorcycles and 10 mobile phones from their possession.
As per the police, the complainant of the case, Sudhanshu Pradhan, works as an ATMO (ATM Officer) in a private agency in Bhubaneswar and posted at Sonepur district.
The agency had reportedly taken the franchise from the Bank of Baroda to collect money from the bank and deposit the same in different cash dispensing machines of the bank in the district. Pradhan used to collect cash from the bank's main branch at Sonepur and deposited the same in the ATM counters located at Sonepur, Ullunda and Binka.
Sunil Kumar Moharana (28), a resident of Ghodaghatpada of Sonepur Police works under him.
On the fateful day (March 17, 2021), Pradhan collected Rs.38,00,000 cash from the main branch of the bank at Sonepur to refill the same in an ATM counter located in the vicinity and another in Ullunda.
However, when he proceeded towards Ullunda on his motorcycle alone with Rs 21 lakh cash in his backpack (after refilling Rs 17 lakh in Sonepur ATM), he was intercepted by five unknown miscreants who snatched away the cash bag after holding him at gun point.
The Sonepur police later formed a special investigation team under the Superintendent of Police which managed to round up the miscreants on Tuesday and recovered Rs. 15.3 lakh of the stolen money.