The pre-dawn heists in Kerala Premium

Kerala ATM theft: Capture of seven men from Haryana shows the communication and cooperation between Tamil Nadu and Kerala and within districts

It was 2:35 a.m. on September 27 when the control room of the Thrissur rural police station received an alert from the central control room of the local State Bank of India (SBI) branch. There had been a break-in at the bank’s ATM kiosk at Mapranam in Irinjalakuda town, approximately 21 km from Thrissur city, Kerala. A team jumped into the police four-wheeler, its blue light flashing, and reached the spot within 10 minutes. They examined the CCTV footage, and initiated a vehicle check across roads in the district.

Exactly an hour after the first break-in, a second SBI ATM kiosk at Naikkanal, about 20 km from Mapranam, in Thrissur East, was broken into. A third break-in occurred at Kolazhy village, around 6 km from Naikkanal, within the Viyyur police station limits, at 4:20 a.m. Both these fell within the Thrissur city police limits.

Police say they received the alert about the first robbery 25 minutes after it occurred, the second robbery only 50 minutes after, and the third 20 minutes after. It was later revealed that over ₹33 lakh was stolen from the first ATM, over ₹25 lakh from the second, and ₹9 lakh from the third. Midhun K.P., Station House Officer at Viyyur, who was left in charge that night, rushed to the ATM kiosks at Naikkanal and Kolazhy to inspect the crime scenes.

By around 5:30 a.m., the police had identified the presence of a white mid-size SUV without a number plate at all three crime scenes, thanks to the CCTV footage. The initial investigation began based on this lead. R. Ilango, District Police Chief (Thrissur City), passed on this information to his counterparts in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which proved crucial.

Further examination revealed that the ATM cameras had been spray-painted before the break-in happened. Smoke at the crime scenes suggested the robbers had used a gas cutter.

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Ilango says the police began to suspect the ‘gas cutter gang’, known for similar operations in Mewat, Haryana. “They had also carried out a similar operation in Kannur in 2021, when three ATMs were robbed in a span of about 45 minutes. Their modus operandi involved using container trucks to escape with the loot,” says Ilango, who had been the Superintendent of Police in Kannur at the time.