Bhubaneswar: Two inter-State robbers, who were involved in a major ATM loot case in Bhubaneswar, have been arrested by the Vizag police, Twin City Police Commissioner, Sudhanshu Sarangi said on Friday.
While addressing a press conference, Sarangi informed that the two accused- Samarjyot Singh who hails from Punjab and Zafar Sadiq a native of Kerala have been arrested. The two-member gang used to operate from Bangalore and targeted ATM kiosks in different parts of the country.
The criminals mostly used to travel by flights and stayed in luxury hotels, said Sarangi.
According to Sarangi, both the criminals had looted around Rs 27 lakhs from the Punjab National Bank’s ATM under Infocity Police Station on October 10 night.
Senior police officials informed that both the criminals had reached Bhubaneswar from Kolkata on October 5 and stayed in a city-based hotel. The criminals hired a motorcycle and gas cylinder from a trader in Mancheswar.
After looting cash from the ATM kiosk of the Nationalised bank, the criminals returned the bike and checked out from the hotel. Later, they went to the airport and left for Delhi and then moved to different parts of the country including Chandigarh, Bangalore and Vizag by changing flights.
“It was a blind case and we suspected the involvement of an inter-state gang. A special team was formed and initially we got some pictures of the criminals from the CCTV footafe of the ATM kiosk. From footages of other cameras installed in the neighbourhood, we managed to get some details of the criminals which led us to the hotel where they were staying,” said Sarangi.
Later, a special team of Commissionerate Police starting following the gang members and alerted Vizag police which then nabbed both of them.
“We have moved court seeking remand of both the accused. Once their remand is granted, we will interrogate them to extract more information from the duo. We will also recommend the names of the officers to the Ministry of Home Affairs for medals for successfully conducting the investigation,” Sarangi added.