Three persons have been arrested for stealing Rs 23 lakh from an automated teller machine (ATM) of a public sector bank in Geeta Colony in East Delhi a fortnight ago, police said today. Yunus Hasan, 21, Mohammed Abbas, 19 and Mohammed Zahid,20, all presently residing in Laxmi Nagar, had vandalised the ATM of Punjab National Bank on the intervening night of March 14-15 and stole Rs 23,03,200 from the cash chest after cutting it open with a gas cutter, a senior poilce official said.
“Police has recovered Rs 8.71 lakh from Hasan, Rs 3.50 lakh from Zahid and Rs 7.20 from Abbas. Apart from this, three mobile phones, three cars, one oxygen cylinder, one small LPG cylinder, pipe and nozzle (cutter) used in the crime from Zahid,” said Prabhakar, DCP East District.Hasan, who is from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, escaped to
his native place but was later arrested near Akshardham Temple. Zahid, a permanent resident of Mewat in Haryana, is
presently pursuing graduation from Zakir Hussain College.
All the three accused used to live in a madrassa in Kishan Kunj in Laxmi Nagar. The madrassa was run by Yunus’ father Mohammed Sahabuddin. His father left the madrassa but Zahid continued to teach there.
During his stay in the madrassa, Zahid came up with the idea for making easy money by stealing vehicles from the area of Shakarpur, Laxmi Nagar and Geeta Colony and selling it in Mewat which is a majort hub for disposal of stolen vehicles.
They all met in the madrassa and started stealing motor cycles and cars, disposing of the stolen vehicles in the
area of Nuh, Mewat in Haryana, the official said.Yunus had a welding shop, which closed down and started
to live in the madrassa with Zahid and joined his gang. Being a fabricator by profession, he used to easily prepare the master key for all the vehicles.
“Yunus, Zahid and Abbas planned to steal money from ATM which was an easy target for them with the fabricating work
experience of Yunus. Consequently, all the three accused persons arranged a gas cutter and staged a heist at the ATM.
During interrogation, Zahid and Yunus also confessed to theft of 11 other cars. PTI
