Silvester D’Souza

Daijiworld Media Network-Kundapur (RJP)

Kundapur, Aug 15: Police managed to apprehend a person within hours of he attempted to break an ATM machine at Hemmady to steal money on Sunday, August 14.

Shekar Poojary (36) is the person accused. He is the resident of Hemmady.

Shekar originally hails from Kumbhashi and has been staying with his wife and two children at Hemmady since a month and half. He worked as a coolie worker at a commercial complex under construction. The complex has an ATM. Shekar watched people coming to the ATM and withdrawing money. Being an alcoholic, he thought breaking the ATM machine will give him easy money. Accordingly he hatched a plan.

Shekar came to the ATM fully drunk at 1.30 am on Sunday with the face covered with his shirt. Then he damaged the CCTV camera as he knew that his images would be captured. After that he started opening the ATM machine with the help of rod and hammer he had brought. He also destroyed the machine display in the process.

Even after two hours of struggling, he did not manage to open the cash component of ATM machine. At around 3.30 am, Kundapur police were seen near the ATM on a bike. They were on the daily patrol. But fearing that they would come to him, Shekar ran away from the place leaving his chappals. He threw the rod and hammer nearby.

The police took the matter seriously and acted quickly. Kundapur sub-inspector Nasser Hussein, additional superintendent of police Vishnuvardhan, Kundapur DySP Praveen Nayak visited the spot in the morning and inspected the place. Based on the chappals left and the inputs received from locals and labourers, the police got a clue that Shekar was the suspect. They immediately arrested him. Later Shekar told them that he had come back to the ATM in the morning and went back after seeing the police and crowd there. He also revealed that he had seen an ATM theft in r television and developed a desire to steal from the ATM.

Tata Communications who managed the ATM had not employed any security guard at the ATM which made Shekar’s job easier to enter the place. But ultimately with so much of plan and work, he did not manage to take away cash from the ATM.