ATM battery looter gang nabbed in city

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, Oct 4:

Acting on a tip off, the Commssionerate Police on Friday busted a gang of ATM battery robbers and arrested four persons involved in the crime from different locations of the city. As many as 60 batteries and two stabilizers were seized from their possession worth around Rs 4 lakh.

The culprits were identified as Deepak Kumar Mohapatra of Godipokhari Sahi of Old Town, Prasant Kumar Panda staying at Plot No- 55 of Jayadurganagar in Chintamaniswar area, Nityananda Das of Sikharchandi Basti in Patia in Bhubaneswar and Tabarak Hussain of Masjid Road in Zobra in Cuttack. They all were forwarded to court.

The racket has been active for the last one year.

The IIC of Laxmisagar police station Kishore Chandra Mund said, “We had arrested six persons from a ICICI ATM counter near the Falcon House road on the charge of looting 20 ATM batteries worth Rs 1.2 lakh. On interrogating them, we came to know that more people were involved in the racket. We formed a special squad to nab the other members of the gang and arrested them today. They have looted batteries from ATM counters of the PNB, ICICI, SBI, Axis and other banks in the city.”

Mund said the mastermind of the racket Sushant Kumar Maharana, of Old Town under Lingaraj police station and an electrician by profession along with his other associates target the ATM counters at night. They enter the counters under the pretext of withdrawing money, switch off the lights and then remove the batteries. They supply the stolen batteries to  Prasant, a scrap dealer who sells them in neighbouring states through a person called Tabarak of Cuttack .

All the arrested persons have cases pending against them , police sources said.