After 8-km chase with police, robbers flee with ATM machine

Gurugram: After a dramatic chase that ended with a gang of ATM thieves firing at the Gurugram Police, robbers in the NCR city made away with an ATM machine of a private bank — which contained around Rs 1 lakh in cash.

The crime took place in the wee hours of Saturday, and the thieves made away with the machine after being chased by a PCR vehicle for almost 8 kilometres. Moreover, it was also reported that the criminals in order to escape from the spot even fired certain gunshots in the air to intimidate the law enforcement officials.

The incident occurred at the Dhankot area after certain policemen who were patrolling the area suddenly found at around 2:30 am on Saturday that a group of masked men was making away with an uprooted ATM counter in their Hyundai I 20 car.

Following this, the chase began between Gurugram police and the robbers where the latter were able to escape.

Between 2018 and 2019, there were 45 incidents of ATM thefts reported in Gurugram. In 2020, however, there was a slight decline and 15 thefts were reported.

From brazenly breaking the ATM counter and carrying it away to even using gunpowder to break into the ATMs, robbers in Gurugram have used every trick in the book to steal cash from ATMs.

While there have been certain arrests that have been made by Gurugram Police in the past it has not created deterrence for the robbers to be brazen enough in stealing ATM counters.

Normally gangs from Nuh are found to be involved in crimes of stealing ATMs. However, there have been incidents where several gangs from Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have also become proactive in carrying these crimes.

"We will be able to get hold of criminals involved in this ATM crime soon," said a senior official from Gurugram Police.