Lucknow: In a shocking incident, four youth were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly stealing Rs 39.58 lakh from an ATM in the Sushant Golf City police station area on April 4, according to a Times of India report.
It was revealed by four youths, that they were trained by 'ATM Baba'. The cops also recovered Rs 9.13 lakh from their possession, but now their focus has shifted to arresting ATM Baba, who is the kingpin of the pan-India gang.
Over 30 such cases have been committed by the gang in the last one year across the country, the police informed TOI.
Who is ATM Baba?
Sudhir Mishra from Bihar's Chappra is known as 'ATM Baba' among his acquaintances. He earned the name due to his skills in training unemployed youth on how to break ATMs in a span of 15 minutes.
These young people receive a three-month crash course at Chappra. They are instructed on how to quickly access an ATM, spray misty liquid at the cameras and on the glass walls of the ATM booth to hide their identities, cut through the cash box of the ATM, and make their getaway within 15 minutes. A 15-day live demonstration is also conducted after the training. And only those team members who finish the assignment in under 15 minutes are deployed.
Mishra operates a well-oiled gang and hires unemployed youths from different states, according to a Times of India report.
How was the theft done?
In a bid to crack the case, the cops rummaged through 1,000 CCTV footages, mobile data and checked over 20 tolls around Lucknow of the fateful day to trace the ATM theft accused.
During the probe, a CCTV grab from the house near the ATM was found, which led the cops to a blue-coloured car from which the miscreants had entered and fled the city, according to the TOI report.
The team then reached its owner in Sitamarhi, Bihar. In the meantime, another police team intercepted the same car on Sultanpur road and arrested the four.
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