Miscreants run away on seeing policemen arrive at kiosk

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 5

Three miscreants attempted to loot an ATM of the State Bank of India (SBI), located on the Kanjli road in Kapurthala, in the wee hours today.

However, the timely arrival of cops of the police control room (PCR) at the place made the miscreants flee from the site.

The incident reportedly took place at 2.50 am. The ATM guard Randhir Singh had gone to answer the nature’s call and the moment he arrived, the three miscreants, whose faces were covered, pounced on him. The guard was about to lock the kiosk from inside, but the sudden arrival of the miscreants caught him unawares.

Inspector Jang Bahadur Sharma, in charge, PCR Kapurthala, said, the PCR cops check ATM kiosks every 20 minutes. “At 1.50 am, the PCR cops Mangal and Kuldeep had made a security check at the SBI ATM. After this, they got busy in some other case of missing persons and could not make security check for some time. After over an hour, when they went there using the hooter at 2.50 am, the miscreants, who were trying to break open the ATM, fled from the spot as they saw the PCR reaching there,” Sharma said.

When the cops reached the spot, the guard narrated the entire incident to them.

The PCR cops then alerted the other PCR units and they all conducted searches in city areas, but the accused managed to give them a slip, PCR in charge Sharma said.

The robbers had planned to uproot the ATM, like was done in two cases reported in Jalandhar.

During preliminary investigation, it came to light that the robbers had come in a jeep. They had tied the ATM kiosk with a heavy rope and wanted to uproot the ATM and load it onto the jeep. However, they failed in their attempt.

Two ATM uprooting incidents have been reported in the Jalandhar region in which thieves, after uprooting the ATM, had loaded it on vehicles and fled from the crime scene. The first incident was reported at Sarhali village on September 26, 2015, where three robbers, including a woman, had uprooted the unguarded ATM of the PNB, loaded it on a vehicle, and fled. In the second such incident on October 6, 2015, the thieves had looted an SBI ATM at Jandiala Manjhki village.