Two ATM service agents among 6 held for robbery

Kadapa: Two ATM service agents, who were robbed of Rs 53 lakh here early this week, were in fact part of the gang which executed the crime, police said on Thursday as it arrested them and four others besides recovering the entire stolen amount.

“ATM service agents A Sreenivasulu (27), a resident of Vemula mandal, and Y K Vikram, who hails from Gunakanapalli village, were the main conspirators of the robbery that took place near a SBI branch here on April 18”, Kadapa SP Naveen Gulati said at a press conference here. With the help of four others, they planned the robbery and executed it”, he said.

“The other accused were identified as P Venkata Ramana (40), P Veeranjaneyulu (27), N Ambrish (26) and Narayanachari Siva (22). Veeranjaneyulu and Siva are originally from Bengaluru. Acting on a tip-off, police arrested all of them this afternoon from near a temple on the Pulivendula-Kadiri Road where they had assembled to distribute the stolen booty among themselves. The entire stolen amount was recovered and four vehicles used by them were seized”, the SP said.

Sreenivasulu and Vikram, employed with Logicash, a cash management service provider, were robbed of Rs 53 lakh by two motorcycle-borne men on Monday. The bike-borne men threw chilli powder on the duo's eyes and beat them with iron rods when they were taking the cash to refill 9 ATMs of SBI under their service area.

Gulati said the service agents have confessed they have misappropriated more than Rs 60 lakh from the ATMs under their jurisdiction in the last four years. Explaining their modus operandi, the SP said the duo, after receiving the confirmation message of loading the ATMs from their head office, would again open the machines using security keys and withdraw cash.

PTI