Arunachal police solve ATM armed robbery case, prime accused arrested

East Kameng Police of Arunachal Pradesh successfully solved the SBI ATM armed robbery case dated February 15. 

Further, the accused Taguk Rang has been arrested along with recovery of over Rs 20 Lakhs cash, one vehicle that was purchased from the robbed money, a revolver and a two-wheeler used in the commission of an offence.
 
The accused was employed as a contingency worker in government, but the desire for easy money to repay loans made him commit this heinous crime.

As per reports, an FIR was received on February 15 from the SBI cash officer, that the suitcase containing cash was snatched after firing two rounds during the process of ATM replenishment by a bank team at Type 1, Seppa town. 

A total of Rs 40 Lakh cash was robbed in broad daylight at around 12:10 pm. The miscreant opened two rounds of gunfire targeting the accompanying staff, fortunately, it did not hit anyone. 

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The Miscreant was wearing a bluish jacket and black helmet. He had parked his two-wheeler close to ATM.

Accordingly, a case was registered case No. SPA PS 09/2023 u/s 392/307 IPC r/w sec. 27 Arms Act. The same has been endorsed by Insp. Sochi Don, OC, PS, SPA.

The investigation details claims, a total of 3 teams of 24 Police personnel headed by a DySP Seppa were working day and night to solve the case.
 
Witnesses were examined which gave the identification of clothes, vehicles and weapons used in the commission of the offence. Sources were engaged throughout the district to find out for any actionable clues.

At the same time, CCTV footage of 10 places in the township was scanned and more than 350 hours of footage were analysed by the police to look for clues. Other technical methods were also employed to zero in on suspects. 

The technical team led by Sh Matin Ratan, DySP Seppa gave an actionable lead in this case. One accused was identified and arrested after a successful raid by a Police team led by SI Shakti Lamgu.

The accused was identified as Taguk Rang, age 32 years and was apprehended on 24 March 2023. He is a contingency worker in the RWD department. He has earlier worked as a contractor which landed him in financial loss and a lot of debt. He has no prior criminal record.

On disclosure of the accused following recoveries were made –
1.    Rs. 15,50,000 cash remaining from the robbed amount
2.    Rs. 5,25,000 that he paid to 5 persons to repay his loan
3.    The revolver used in the commission of the offence
4.    Two-wheeler with model Honda Grazia used in the commission of the offence
5.    Alto car bought by the accused from robbery money 
6.    One VIVO mobile phone purchased from robbed money
7.    Helmet, jacket, mask, and shoes the accused was wearing during the commission of the offence
8.    Empty cartridge of two rounds fired during the commission of an offence

Motive of the crime 

He was in desperate need of money as he was under heavy debt from many persons. He was occasional gambler which worsen his financial condition. robbery. Therefore, to get ‘easy’ and bulk money he committed this offence. 

Modus operandi

He has been planning to rob ATM for over a year. For this, he purchased a revolver on December 2022, through a gun license of his uncle (SBBL country made gun) which his uncle entrusted him to use. He did recce of the SBI bank over 6 months and followed the movement of ATM money replenishing vehicle many times and the staff of SBI that goes for the replenishment. By doing this, he could identify the staff and the money van of SBI and the course of their movement for this. Also he used to check all ATMs in the town if the cash is available or not. By this process he knew that cash replenishing team would first go to Type-1 SBI ATM and would carry maximum cash at that point. 

He came prepared on the fateful day with fully loaded revolver and black helmet and bluish muffler to hide his identity. He applied black cello tape over the nameplates to hide the vehicle numbers from the CCTV. When the cash replenishing party was about to leave from the bank, he left from the bank in advance to reach at Type-1 ATM where he parked his two wheeler approximately 50 meters away from ATM. He was waiting for the cash team to reach close to ATM with their suitcase. Just when they were about to enter the ATM with the suitcase, he opened fire and snatched the cash suitcase. One police personnel accompanied the cash replenishing party. But he could not do much as accused opened fire close to him. With this cash suitcase on his Grazia vehicle, he fled from the spot.

Prior to this robbery, he had done a recce of ATMs Itanagar at Zero point and Bank Tinali but did not execute because of the presence of many CCTV cameras around that area.