105 ATM burglaries in Delhi between Oct 2018 and Aug 2022: Police data

NEW DELHI: Delhi reported its last bank robbery on October 12, 2018 in Dwarka’s Chhawla, in which six armed robbers, with their faces masked, barged into the bank and killed the cashier before escaping with ₹ 3 lakh.

Though no gang of robbers has dared to attack a bank in the capital since the 2018 incident, the city has recorded 105 cases of ATM burglary, till August 31 this year – of which 52 cases are yet to be solved, shows Delhi Police data.

The data, senior police officers said, shows that robbers are increasingly finding that it was easier and safer to target unmanned,and remotely located ATMs than looting a bank where security personnel and electronic safety gadgets can spoil their plans.

According to the Delhi Police data, in 105 cases of ATM break-ins reported between October 2018 and August 31, 108 suspects have been arrested so far. Also, 35 of these suspects had earlier been named as accused in different robbery cases.

A senior officer posted with the crime branch said that after that Chhawla bank dacoity in October 2018, seven more cases of ATM burglary were reported in Delhi, in which 11 people were arrested. “In 2019, a total of 27 cases were registered, 12 were solved with the arrest of 23 suspects. In 2020, the cases of ATM break-ins rose to 42, of which 19 were worked out with the arrest of 42 accused. The cases, however, dropped in 2021, when 17 cases of ATM burglary taking place in the national capital, of which 11 were solved and 13 suspects were arrested. In 2022, as many as 12 cases of ATM break-ins were reported, of which seven cases have been solved so far and 21 accused have been arrested,” he said asking not to be named.

“It [ATM break in] is less risky and more lucrative. Of the 105 cases of ATM break-ins reported between October 2018 and August 31, as many as 35 accused had been named as suspects in different cases of robbery,” the officer said.

The officer added that of the 105 cases, maximum -- 61 -- were reported between 12am and 3am, and 21 took place between 3am and 6am. “Besides, seven ATM break-ins took place between 6am and 9am, six between 9am and 12pm, five from 9pm to 12am, three between 6pm and 9 pm and the remaining two between noon and 6pm,” he said.

Explaining the preferred modus operandi of the ATM burglars, the officer said that the criminals mostly use two methods to break ATMs. “Either they uproot them with the help of cars and vans or they use a gas cutter. Analysis of the cases in the last three years, shows that majority of the ATM burglars were associated with Mewat-based criminal gangs of Haryana. During the daytime, these criminals conduct a recce of the unmanned ATMs and they strike around midnight. They spray the CCTV cameras with black paint and use gas cutters to reach the cash dispensing tray,” the crime branch officer said.