Five arrested for trying to break open ATMs in Vasai

MUMBAI: Five men have been arrested for allegedly trying to break open ATMs at three kiosks in Vasai early hours of Thursday. According to crime branch officers of the Mira Bhayandar–Vasai Virar police, the accused took advantage of heavy rainfall thinking they wouldn’t get caught.

The five accused have been identified as Rohit D’Zousa, Prabhu Chauhan, Sahil Taak, Sonu Pariyar and Kaushik Yadav.

The incident took place around 1am when four men entered an ATM centre near Babhola Naka in Vasai West and tried to break open the machine. The entire incident was caught on CCTV installed in the ATM kiosk, as the robbers attempted to rob the machine for more than an hour. Police officers said that it was only after the alarm went off that the robbers realised that they could be caught, and the robbers fled the spot.

Sampatrao Patil, senior police inspector of Manikpur police station, said that the FIR was registered at 3am on Friday against the unidentified men for attempted robbery.

Upon scanning the CCTV recordings of the roads leading to the ATM centre, the police spotted a red Fiat Linea bearing the registration number MH 12 FF 5061. Shahuraj Ranware, senior police inspector of Crime branch unit 2, said that they followed the movement of the car through CCTV footage and found it parked outside the slums near Achole Dongri area.

“We laid a trap and waited near the car. When we spotted five men coming and sitting in the vehicle, we intercepted the car and arrested the five men,” said Ranware.

Ranware said that D’souza, the main accused, has several house-breaking cases registered against him and he is the owner of the car, had contacted the men staying near his locality and convinced them to form a gang.

D’Souza, who had been released on bail just a month ago had got the men from the area together and took them to the ATM centres to train them to break into houses. “They selected an ATM where there was no security. But, since they did not have gas cutters, they could not rob the money kept in the machines. They were planning to break into houses after failing to break open the ATM machines,” said Ranware.

All five men have been arrested and handed over to the Manikpur police for further legal action.