The Commissionerate Police in Bhubaneswar made significant progress in the ATM robbery case by arresting two inter-state robbers on Tuesday. The suspects, identified as Abdul Haq alias Rustam (36) and Sheikh Mijanur Rehman Mulla alias Raju (45), were arrested in Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) and West Bengal, respectively. With their arrests, the total number of individuals arrested in the case has risen to eight.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Commissioner of Police (CP) Suresh Dev Datta Singh confirmed that six individuals had already been arrested and sent to court. The police also seized Rs 38,000 in cash and mobile phones from the two newly arrested suspects.
The breakthrough in the case came on March 1, when police arrested six people from Vedavyas, Rourkela, after analyzing CCTV footage from the scene. Authorities also confiscated a vehicle, Rs 1.6 lakh in cash, and additional evidence during the arrests.
The gang had stolen an ATM machine from a nationalized bank in Sriram Nagar on January 24. After removing the ATM, the robbers transported it to a riverbank in a stolen auto-rickshaw. They used a gas cutter to break into the machine and steal Rs 21.77 lakh in cash, with the ATM’s cost estimated at Rs 1.70 lakh.