Kolkata: Alerted locals of Patuli in South Kolkata averted an ATM robbery on Wednesday at midnight.
Though the miscreants failed to take away money from the ATM, the incident might indicate the return of some members of a gang, who had carried out a similar incident in the city a couple of years ago, causing worry among locals.
It was at S Block in Patuli, where local people heard something had been happening inside the ATM. They found that all the lights of the ATM were off, which raised their suspicion.
A woman, who resides in an adjacent house, was the first to notice that the lights of the ATM went off and heard someone was attempting to break the ATM.
She contacted one of her neighbours and came out of her house. Her daughter immediately reported the matter to the police. She found a man fleeing the spot.
Police said the man fled without taking any money as he realised that he would get caught.
The local people, however, couldn't see his face as it was covered with a shawl.
Police reached the spot and found out that the front portion of the ATM was damaged. The bank authorities were also informed. Officials of the bank and company that look after the maintenance of the ATM went to the spot on Wednesday morning. The bank officials confirmed that not a single penny was looted from the bank.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the ATM was an unmanned one and the miscreants, who attempted to take away from it knew the fact.
The miscreants have damaged the surveillance cameras those were fitted outside the ATM. But according to an official of the bank, footages of the crime got recorded on the inbuilt cameras in the ATM itself using which the police can easily identify the miscreants.
It may be recalled that a couple of years ago, three ATMs located at Sinthi More were lotted and at the same time similar incidents had taken place in different urban parts of the state.
The police had arrested the kingpin of the racket. But now the police are suspecting that some members of the same group could be behind the incident in Patuli.