Mumbai: The Vakola police, on April 2, arrested a 21-year-old man for allegedly attempting to steal cash from the Bank of Baroda’s ATM in Santacruz East. Acquiring knowledge of ATM theft techniques from a Hindi movie and YouTube videos, Javed Shaikh, a resident of Palghar, made an unsuccessful attempt to break into the ATM. He is currently in police custody.
The police said that the ATM kiosk is situated at Vakola Pipeline Road. On April 1, at 6.22pm, Javed entered the ATM and tried to force open the machine using a cutter. Despite his sustained efforts, he was unable to gain access and fled the scene. Upon noticing the attempted theft, bank officer Naveen Karkal filed a case against an unidentified individual at the Vakola police station.
In response to the incident, the police scrutinised 70-80 CCTV footage recordings from the vicinity, including those from the kiosk. Based on the footage, the accused was seen riding a blue-coloured bike towards the Dhobighat area. The police set up a trap in the vicinity and apprehended him. Initially, he did not cooperate, but later he confessed to the crime.
The police seized a bag from him containing grinder blades, two blades, a cutter, eyeglasses, mechanical gloves, a money cap, a pipe, and a bike used in the crimes and discovered that the bike was stolen.
The operation was carried out by police sub-inspector Sunil Kengar and his team under the supervision of senior police inspector Prakash Khandekar. According to police records, no prior cases have been filed against Javed as he wasn’t apprehended before. The police have filed a case against him under section 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code.
