Hyderabad: Moghalpura police on Friday, February 21, arrested a man for attempted robbery of an ATM at the Shalibanda branch of State Bank of India (SBI).
The accused has been identified as Honmane Kashinath, a 24-year-old who sells panipuri in front of Balaji sweet shop in Aliabad. Kashinath was addicted to online games like Rummy and Roulette and has accumulated a substantial debt of around Rs 30 lakh by taking loans from friends and online loan applications.
In a desperate attempt to alleviate this financial burden, he resolved to rob an ATM. On the night of February 14 and 15, he broke into the Shalibanda SBI ATM using a stone and then used his hands to force open the machine. He extracted the cash box, which he subsequently broke open with the stone. However, finding no cash inside, he discarded the empty box in a nearby garbage container.
Golconda’s historic Khazana Building remains inaccessible to visitors
On the morning of February 15, when the service manager reached the branch he noticed the ATM shutter half closed. After inspection the ATM was found broken and damaged, subsequently, a case was registered on Branch Manager Syed Mahammad Rafi’s complaint and police took on an investigation.
Upon analysing CCTV footage it was found that a man had entered the ATM at around 3:50 am, closed the shutter and stayed inside till 5:05 am. During this time, the suspect forcibly opened and damaged the Automated Deposit cum Withdrawal Machine (ADWM) by attempting to remove the cash cassettes, but was unsuccessful.
The suspect then tried to steal the cash retract box containing rejected and counterfeit notes. However after inspection by an ATM technician, it was confirmed that all cash cassettes, containing Rs 770,100, were intact and that no cash had been stolen, but the ADWM was completely damaged.
Kashinath has been booked under sections 331 (4) and 305 (e) of Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) for break-in and theft.
