Cop jumps into drain to catch ATM thief in north Delhi’s Burari

An SHO jumped into a drain Saturday chasing a man who was allegedly to trying to break into an ATM in Burari area.

Station House Officer, Burari Police Station, hurt his knee in the attempt to catch the thief.

The accused has been identified as Arjun alias Pandit, 25, a resident of Burari.

According to police, Arjun early Saturday morning was trying to break into an ATM in Pradhan Encalve of north Delhi, by first covering the CCTV with a tape and then dismounting it.

However, an e-surveillance team stationed in Navi Mumbai got an alert of tampering with the ATM around 2 am and within seconds alerted the PCR command room of Delhi Police, Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.

The command room alerted the night checking officer of the north district who later alerted the SHO. The SHO, who was on night patrolling, immediately rushed to the spot.

“I was on night patrolling when got information regarding the ATM tampering. I was in Pradhan Enclave and saw a man running towards my car wearing a helmet. He also had a packet in his hand,” Prasad said.

Suspecting something fishy about the man, Parasad asked his driver to block him, causing the man to jump into a drain to escape arrest.

Prasad caught the leg of the man, and with the help of his driver, detained him, police said.

Police found a camera on him, and later got to know that he was trying to break into an ATM, 100 metres away from the spot, police said.

They said when the siren rang off, Arjun ran away from the ATM carrying the camera with him.

Besides the CCTV, a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, and a multi-utility screw driver were recovered from the accused. Inside the ATM booth, police found a pickaxe, apparently used to break into the ATM, tape, and bits of ATM parts damaged in the theft attempt, police said.

Arjun was arrested under sections 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the IPC, the DCP said.

Arjun was found to have been arrested before too during a preventive action. He has a history of drug abuse and is not staying with his parents, police said.

(With PTI inputs)