Finally acting on the bank officials tending to sit on the police proposals to install CCTV cameras to check crimes, Udham Singh Nagar Police have taken action against the manager of a nationalised bank. A case has been filed against the errant bank by police, it is learnt. It seems police have taken lessons from the daring ATM heist that occurred in SIDCUl areas in Rudrapur on 24 June night. Police are still groping in the dark regarding the identities of the five persons who had allegedly uprooted the ATM machine of ICCI Bank and then decamped with it. The machine contained cash of around Rs7.5 lakh.
Transit Camp police state in-charge sub-inspector Sushil Kumar said that a case under Section 187 of IPC has been registered against the manager of a State Bank of India (SBI) branch under Transit Camp police station after police had found that the CCTV cameras were non-functioning and the security person who was supposed to stand guard on the ATM was nowhere in the vicinity.
With ATM loot cases happening in the district, US Nagar police have launched a drive across the district and policemen deputed on patrolling have been directed to check the CCTV cameras and security guards posted in all the ATMs in their jurisdictional areas.
Sub-inspector Kumar said that a meeting had been held earlier with the bank officials and they had been directed to ensure that CCTV cameras were installed inside and outside the ATMs. The antecedents of the guards deputed at banks and ATMs must be checked thoroughly, police had insisted during the meeting. This aside, police had instructed the bank officials to ensure that cash meant for ATMs was transported in vans under the escort of armed guards and also that the local police post or police station concerned is informed when ATMs are refilled with cash, he added.
Recently, a senior district police officer has directed all the police station personnel to book the bank officials under appropriate sections of IPC if the bank’s ATMs are found to be unguarded and the CCTV cameras are found defunct.