MOHALI: In the last three years, several attempts have been made to loot bank ATMs in Mohali. Situated in small towns, most of these were unguarded.
Sources said senior officers have asked beat officers to activate their manpower and monitor sensitive zones which have ATM machines. They have also been asked to conduct night patrols.
Local police are yet to solve old cases and SHOs of respective areas have been told to expedite investigations. The ATM break incident at Phase 11 on Thursday night, in which a security guard was nabbed by the police for deliberately locking his friend inside the Bank of Baroda ATM has raised question marks on the practice of banks hiring private security guards.
On February 13, four youths approached the security guard of an ATM in Zirakpur at around 1.30am to withdraw cash and took the ATM machine containing Rs 9 lakh. They detached the machine in less than four minutes, loaded it into their jeep and covered it with a plastic sheet. Later, they took the cash box and threw the machine in the bushes near Sohana.
Police have not made any headway in the case so far.
On November 18, 2015 four moscreants detached an ATM in front of Mataur police station in Phase 7 but could not take it away. The case has not been cracked.
In 2014, Kurali police came up with the idea under which anyone going to an ATM after 11pm, would be allowed to enter only after a police team conducts verification.
SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said, "Residents or security guards can call for police assistance any time. We also plan to come up with a unique plan to prevent ATM break bids. We have completed a number of meetings with the security staff, police officials and bank officials to come up with a foolproof plan. ATM break cases are being probed. In particular, we are looking for the youths involved in the Zirakpur ATM detachment case. We have some vital clues and the case will soon be cracked."
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