New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: Spanish Netflix original ‘La Casa De Papel’ (Money Heist) has been widely hailed for being a piece of globalist entertainment with its characters specified as names of the cities – Berlin, Nairobi, Tokyo, Helsinki, Rio, Denver, and Oslo among others. Indian fans missed finding any of their country’s city in the series, but as the spate of fate would have it, the latest ATM heist patterns in Delhi found the way to extract the money in a classic Money Heist way. However, since it is not fiction here, the ATM heist gang has been busted and arrested through a joint operation by Delhi and Haryana Police.

In a matter of last six months, a dozen ATMs were reported to have uprooted in Delhi, resulting in a loss of over Rs 1 crore, with the latest ATM heist being committed as early as in early August. 

According to a Hindustan Times report, all ATM thefts were committed similarly. The thieves would steal an SUV first, spray black paint on CCTV cameras inside the ATM premises, uproot the machine and flee away along with the CCTV camera footage storage device.

Most of the thefts took place in February and March before the COVID-19 became a pandemic and subsequently nationwide lockdown to control its spread was put in place. Of the 12 reported cases, seven belong to the areas in National capital bordering Faridabad – Jaitpur, Badarpur, Pul Prahladpur, Govindpuri and New Friends Colony. In early August, two ATM uprooting acts were committed in Outer Delhi’s Narela, and in South Delhi’s Rajokri.

During two separate encounters on August 9 and August 14th, Police nabbed the three suspects from Haryana’s Mewat and Delhi’s Vasant Kunj respectively, alleged to have been involved in over seven ATM heists in the national capital. They have been identified as Arshad Khan (27), Ahmad alias Kalma (35), and Saddam (32).

The police team was reportedly attacked with lathis and stones on August 14 in Mewat, when the operation to catch the suspects was underway. 

“This gang comprises nearly 12-15 members, and each member has a specific task to perform in the uprooting’s execution and theft of ATMs. Khan’s job was to drive around the city during odd hours, look for unguarded ATM booths in isolated areas and conduct detailed reconnaissance before passing on the information to other gang members, who would enter Delhi only to execute the crime,” Deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Singh Kushwaha said in the press statement.

Posted By: Aalok Sensharma