Mulund Police has arrested five youth for recently attempting to break open an ATM with a gas cutter. However, they could not succeed, as the machine caught fire. The youth, who were nabbed within 12 hours of the attempt, are identified as Salman Choudhary (22), Shejad Khan (21), Durgesh Choubey (19) and Arman Ahmed (19). Their other companion was a 17-year-old minor boy, said police.
According to the police, the investigation revealed that Choubey, a delivery boy, was facing financial difficulties and thought that breaking into an ATM machine could solve his problems. He watched several videos on how to break an ATM machine and the functioning of gas cutters, said the police.
The others were promised Rs 20,000 each for the job. For the last 10 days, the group roamed Bhandup and Mulund in search of a guardless ATM at an isolated location. According to the police, the incident took place in the wee hours of Thursday. When the residents of Malabar Hill Road in Mulund spotted the group of youngsters lurking around and asked them what they were doing late in the night, the youth gave evasive answers and escaped. When they went inside the ATM, they found smoke inside and a gas cutter. They then alerted the police. Looking at the condition of the ATM, the police realised that the youth had attempted to break the ATM machine. In the ATM's CCTV camera, the youth were recorded entering the centre and spraying black colour on the CCTV, so their action would go unnoticed.
Following the incident, Mulund Police registered an offence under sections 380 (theft), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and 511 (attempt to commit offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and began their investigation. Police approached several gas cutter dealers to check whether any youngsters recently bought such cutters from them. The police also collected other CCTV footage from the area where the youth were seen.
"Within 12 hours of the incident, we got information that the youth were likely from Bhandup. A police team then rushed there and arrested the youth, who did not expect the police to come knocking at their doors in such a short time,” the police said.
