Chennai, Aug 1 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu Crime branch special police team which is probing the series of thefts in the state targeting SBI ATMs is preparing a final report to be submitted to the DGP.

Tamil Nadu home department sources told IANS that the state police would soon be handing over the case in which around Rs 5 crore was swindled by the ATM thieves, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The CBI is the nodal agency in the country to probe banking frauds especially in nationalized banks and hence the police will hand the case over to the premier investigative agency.

The Tamil Nadu police have already arrested 4 key suspects in the case but 6 others are still at large. The probe by the CBI will be much effective in getting the other accused also apprehended and thus preventing further ATM thefts in other states.

According to the Tamil Nadu Crime branch special team which had probed the case, the thieves targeted 19 ATMs of the SBI in Chennai, Tiruvannamalai, Vellore and Kancheepuram over a period of seven days starting June 17.

The arrested are Amir Arsh Alimuddi (37), Virendar Rawat (23), Najim Hussain (32) and Sowcath Ali (37). All four belong to Ballabgarh in Faridabad District of Haryana.

The police probe has revealed that the robbers first took cash from the machines and then prevented the lid from getting closed for a while by using their hands.

The state police team probing the investigation said that only after the report is submitted to the DGP, the case would be handed over to the CBI.

A senior police officer at the State police headquarters and who was part of the probe team told IANS, "A CBI investigation is required as we have to find out whether these fraudsters have similarly swindled money from ATMs in other states. The CBI is a national agency and investigates the banking frauds also, especially of nationalized banks and hence it will be much better for them to handle this case."