Miscreants target three ATMs in Odisha, cash over Rs 10 lakh stolen

Bhubaneswar: Three automatic teller machines (ATM) of banks were targetted by unidentified burglars at different parts of Odisha including one at Jankia, college chhak under Nirakarpur police limits in Khurda and near Kanasa in Puri district early on Sunday.

Cash over Rs 10 lakh is suspected to have been stolen from AXIS bank ATM at college chhak area while the exact amount looted from Jankia and another ATM in Kanasa area in Puri district is yet to be ascertained.

The involvement of an inter-state criminal gang is suspected as there has been a spurt in the incidents of loot from various ATMs in different parts of the State in the past couple of months.

According to reports, miscreants looted the cash after breaking open the ATM at college chhak using gas cutters. The CCTV cameras installed at the ATM were damaged and hard disk is also reportedly missing.

Earlier, unidentified armed miscreants had allegedly looted more than Rs 30 lakh from two ATMs in Odisha’s coastal Balasore town on May 5.

Preliminary investigations revealed the robbers decamped with nearly Rs 10 lakh from an ATM near ITI Square and over Rs 20 lakh from another ATM at Sunhaat area. Both the ATMs belonged to State Bank of India (SBI), official sources said.