A bank manager and her husband foiled an attempted ATM robbery in Rajasthan on Monday night after an e-surveillance alert flagged suspicious activity at the machine. Their quick response helped protect Rs 16 lakh in cash and resulted in the arrest of two men, police said.
The incident occurred around 2.13 am at a UCO Bank ATM in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district. The two accused had entered the booth intending to steal cash and started damaging the ATM.
The bank’s e-surveillance system detected the suspicious activity and immediately triggered an alarm. Gautam Nagar, the security officer for the bank’s Ajmer region, received the alert and informed branch manager Sarita Chaudhary at around 2 am.
Chaudhary lives with her family in residential quarters located above the bank. After receiving the information, she rushed to the ATM with her husband. She found the two men inside and pulled down the shutter from outside before contacting the police, effectively trapping them in the booth.
Police reached the spot, opened the shutter and arrested Bharat Prajapat, a resident of Mundwa who runs a tea stall, and Komal Kumar Rajput, a native of Bihar who works at Prajapat’s shop.
According to police, the two men had reached the ATM on a motorcycle belonging to another person. They had also brought equipment to break open the cash machine.
The accused damaged the ATM’s upper cover, smeared grease over the CCTV camera and severed its connectivity wires. However, they were unable to open the cash compartment.
The ATM contained Rs 16,00,900 in cash. The bank manager said the money had been loaded into the machine ahead of a proposed bank strike on Monday.
“Both accused were arrested from inside the ATM booth along with the equipment they had used during the attempted robbery,” Station House Officer Purbaram said.
