The arrested man tried to open the vault of a Punjab National Bank ATM in Delhi's Karol Bagh, but failed
A man who had aborted his theft attempt after leisurely trying every trick in the book to open the vault of an automatic teller machine (ATM) in New Delhi's popular commercial area of Karol Bagh has been caught by the police.
The arrest was made four days after the incident was captured in the CCTV camera installed in Punjab National Bank's ATM booth on the night of September 2, the police said.
"At least 100 CCTV cameras were scanned to establish the identity of the suspect whose face was covered with a handkerchief," Deputy Commissioner of Police Office (Central) Sanjay Bhatia said.
The CCTV footage, as shared by the police, shows the accused walk into the ATM with some tools. His demenour was very calm, suggesting that there could have been another person keeping watch thus allowing Birla to try opening the vault for almost 2 minutes, the police said.
The arrested accused has been identified as Karol Bagh resident Kunal Birla, the police said, adding that many cases have been registered against the 20-year-old in the past as well.
Some cases of thefts have been reported wherein the accused have tried to escape getting identified by wearing a face mask - which is medically compulsory amid the coronavirus pandemic - or even overall PPE kits.
A similar attempt to cut open ATMs was reported from Bhopal.
In Mumbai, burglars went a step further in this July when wore PPE kits to conceal their identity before breaking into a jewellery store. They stole 780 gms of gold, the price of which was in the Rs50,000 range at that time.