The theft of over Rs 36 lakh from two unmanned ATMs in the city on Tuesday night has rattled bank customers, but the bank managements said there was nothing to ring an alarm bell for it is a “rare incident”. The bankers stated they would continue to repose faith in the city police for the security of the teller machines.

“This is an accident”

“This is an accident. A very rare case. We have informed the police and they are looking into it,” Bandhan Bank Founder-MD and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh said, when contacted.

Robbers late on Tuesday night looted over Rs 36 lakh by breaking into two unmanned ATMs — one belonging to the Bandhan Bank on private road and the other to the SBI, barely two kilometres away, in the Seven Tanks area at Dumdum.

“That ATM has a security guard who stays there during daytime but we have not appointed anybody for the night. The ATM is, however, under CCTV surveillance to record everything,” Mr Ghosh said.

At present, Bandhan Bank has 50 ATMs in the city while there are 230 nationwide.

On whether the bank has plans to start keeping guards at night, Mr Ghosh said that would “escalate the cost” and they would rather rely on the Kolkata Police.

“Keeping guards at night will raise the expenses. We are not thinking of that option. We have confidence in the Kolkata Police... And in this case also they (Police) have the CCTV footage and I am sure that the robbers will soon be nabbed,” Mr Ghosh said.

“Not responsible”

When contacted a senior official of the SBI said the bank has “outsourced the maintenance as well as security of the ATM”, therefore the bank could not be held “responsible for the theft.”

In fact, the CCTV footage at the Bandhan Bank caught three miscreants in the act, sources in the Kolkata Police said.

“Both the maintenance and security of that particular ATM have been outsourced. So we are not liable for what has happened there because the money which was stolen is also insured. So the bank will not be affected. The bank’s administration has taken a note of the incident,” the senior official of SBI said.

CCTV camera wire cut

However, at the SBI ATM, the robbers had cut the wires of the CCTV camera and hence any recording of the theft was not there.

Police, believing that both were the handiworks of the same gang, was depending on the CCTV footages at the Bandhan Bank ATM.

“We are looking into the footage but going by the nature of the crime it seems that one gang has done it and they are from the locality or from the surrounding areas,” a senior official of the Kolkata Police said. - PTI