2 held including Bangladeshi national in ATM machine robbery in Bhubaneswar

Two people including a Bangladeshi national of a gang were arrested in connection with an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) robbery here, said police on Saturday.

Of the two arrested, one hails from the Sundarban area of West Bengal and another is a Bangladeshi national. They are part of a Bangladeshi gang that conducts recce of an area to prepare plans to execute similar crimes in multiple cities. After executing the plan, they used to escape to Bangladesh, police said.

Commissioner of Police of Bhubaneswar, Soumendra Priyadarshi said, "The criminals were arrested from Bengaluru. They are a part of a larger group of at least five men who are involved in the crime. We are in search of other members of the gang. The arrested accused are in judicial custody."

He further said, "A similar incident took place in Goa and three Bangladeshi criminals were arrested by Delhi police on October 23, 2020. On further investigation, we found that this case has a link to that. Our team reached Bengaluru and raided 30 hotels to locate them. A special team was formed to conduct this operation. After interrogation, it was revealed that the arrested accused are Bangladeshi nationals. These criminals went to Bengaluru, perhaps planning a similar crime there as well."

The police told that the incident took place on April 4, 2022, in the Dhauli police station area in Bhubaneswar when the criminals uprooted an ATM machine of State Bank of India (SBI) at Lingipur Housing Board Colony and took out the money. They damaged the CCTV camera installed at the ATM to destroy the evidence. Apparently, there was Rs 20-25 lakhs cash in the ATM which the criminals robbed with the help of a stolen vehicle.

The Commissioner said, this was one of the rare detection cases, where criminals from some other country are directly involved in it.

A case has been registered against the accused and the police are on the lookout for the other syndicates of the gang.

( With inputs from ANI )