ATMs on Hyderabad outskirts soft target for inter-State gangs

Despite several notices, banks are failing to upgrade security at these kiosks, say police

Hyderabad: Automated Teller Machine (ATM) kiosks appear to be the latest hotspot for inter-State burglary gangs who are increasingly targeting the cash vending kiosks that are located in isolated areas and those on the city outskirts along with those with no proper security arrangements.

Though there have been cases of breaking in to ATMs in the limits of all the three commissionerates earlier too, police say there has been a spike in the number of these incidents of late, though most of them have been futile attempts only. In the few attempts that turned out to be successful attempts, gangs decamped with money from the ATM after managing to cut open the cash dispensing machines using gas cutters.

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Police suspect inter-State gangs from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have been involved in most of these crimes.

“The handiwork of inter-State gangs is suspected in many of these cases. They plan and attack isolated ATMs in the city and flee to their native places,” an official from the Cyberabad Central Crime Station said.

While some thieves are professionals and come with advanced tools and with well-planned strategies, a few are local small time players who break in to the ATM centres with basic tools and try to pry open the machines but in vain.

A Special Operations Team (SOT) official said thieves usually look for unmanned ATMs and those located in secluded places. When there were such cases reported earlier, the police had issued notices to several banks asking them to upgrade security arrangements at their ATMs. The recent spike in cases indicate that most banks or security agencies ignored the notices from the police.

The reason, the police believe, could be that the banks have to go through a lengthy procedure to get permission for recruiting security personnel or for making other arrangements.

“Most banks have their branches here, but their head offices are located in Mumbai, Delhi or other places. They need to get confirmation and an authorisation letter from them. There is a hierarchy and they cannot do it directly,” an official said.

“It could even take two months, one reason why many bank officials forget about it within a fortnight and stop following it up,” he added, also pointing out that some banks, probably as part of cost cutting, too were not hiring any security services at all. And this, apparently, was encouraging crooks to try their luck.

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