Amboli police on Thursday arrested a 20-year-old man who walked for almost three hours to reach his home in Andheri (West), which is barely 500 metres away from the unmanned ATM after he failed in his attempt to steal money on Wednesday night.
Accused Irshad Pathan, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, claimed to have committed the offence to earn fast money and return back to his native home where his wife is expecting to deliver a child and is in need of urgent money.
Pathan who hails from UP has been staying with his uncle at Qureshi Compound on Veera Desai Road, Andheri (West), for the last four months and has been plying auto-rickshaw during night illegally, as he did not hold a valid driving licence nor have the registration number from the union to ply a rickshaw in the city.
“Pathan planned to steal money after he noticed the unmanned ATM for the last few days. He entered the premises wearing a mask. He carried a sickle and for about 60 seconds he tried to break open the automated machine from all sides but failed before he left the premises,” said an Amboli police officer.
The officer said the accused walked for almost three hours to reach home when his residence was situated barely five minutes away from the ATM so the police could not be able to track him.
The case was cracked within 24 hours after the SBI Bank officials filed a complaint when they noticed the theft attempt that got captured in CCTV installed on the premises.
Based on the complaint, DCP Manjunath Singe supervised the team–Amboli police senior inspector Nilesh Bagul, inspector Rauf Shaikh, assistant inspector Atul Sanap and detection staff–zeroed Pathan after following the route he had taken to reach home with the help of at least 20 CCTV grabs.
“At one place, he removed his mask which was captured in the CCTV. This helped to identify him and later with the help of local intelligence we got details about his whereabouts,” said the police.
Surjitt Sahani
