Trio steals Rs 38 lakh from five ATMs

Mumbai: The Thane police is on the lookout for an employee of a cash management firm that services bank ATMs and two of his friends for allegedly decamping after stealing cash worth Rs 38 lakh that was meant for replenishing five ATMs in Diva and Dombivali. The police has procured CCTV footage from the five ATMs to zero in on the trio.

Manpada police officials said that the main accused, Rakesh Pawar, worked with a cash management company in Dombivali and was responsible for depositing money in ATMs in Diva and Dombivali. The other two accused were Rakesh’s friends, Nayan Bhanushali and Jyotish Gupta.

A police official said, “When the cash management company received a call from the banks as to why there was no cash in the five ATMs, investigation was initiated. They found some CCTV footage which was shocking. During the past one week, the company had assigned Rakesh the responsibility of depositing cash in the five ATMs every morning. A total of Rs 40 lakh was deposited in these machines over the past five days. That’s how Rakesh came to know the procedure to deposit money in ATMs. On Tuesday, he took the help of two of his friends and went back to those ATM machines to withdraw Rs 38 lakh from them.”

Manpada police senior PI, Gajanan Kabdule, said, “We have received CCTV footage which clearly shows Rakesh was there in the ATM with his two friends and emptied out cash in bags that they carried. Rakesh knew the security code... so he took the money. We have CCTV footage of all five ATMs. We are searching for the trio and will catch them soon.”