ATM heist in Tura: 4 persons in custody

TURA: Four suspects have been taken into custody by police in the course of investigation into the ATM heist at Tura super market in which Rs 40 lakh was stolen on Tuesday night.
“We have four suspects in custody and a case has been registered. We are optimistic of cracking the case soon,” West Garo Hills superintendent of police MGR Kumar said.
Though the police chief stopped short of disclosing the identity of the four suspects in view of the ongoing investigation he, however, revealed that it was an insider job since there was no forced entry into the cash vault.
It is suspected that the robbers opened the cash vault of the ATM by the use of the password indicating someone knew the working details of the machine.
The money was allegedly removed at around 11 pm and in a hurry to avoid being caught the gang left behind Rs 1.5 lakh behind the ATM counter.
The case is similar to another theft that took place on a string of ATMs in Tura, last November.
In that case, a handful of employees of the company engaged with loading cash into the ATM vaults clandestinely siphoned off small amounts of cash from different ATMs while loading the money over a period of time.
A total of Rs 24 lakh was stolen in that robbery and although police were able to arrest two men tasked with depositing the cash into the ATMs the stolen amount was never recovered.
Meanwhile, more details have emerged about the recent heist in which Rs 25 lakh was stolen from a bank employee near the SBI main branch in Tura.
Tura police have identified the mastermind of the entire operation who involved three other persons to take part in the robbery.
The ring leader has reportedly fled the state along with another accomplice after two of his gang members were caught by police from a boat heading out of Phulbari towards Dhubri on the Jinjiram river on the day of the theft.
The entire amount of 25 lakh was recovered from the duo’s possession.