Police Commissioner Sharanappa S. Dhage visiting an injured policeman in hospital in Kalaburagi on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: ARUN KULKARNI
The Kalaburagi police on Saturday shot at two persons in their legs and arrested a four-member inter-State gang in connection with the looting of a State Bank of India (SBI) ATM at Ramnagar area on the ring road in the city on April 9. Four police personnel, including a sub-inspector of Police, suffered injuries in the incident.
The accused were identified as Tasleem Udbhavkhan, Shareef Noor Ahmad, and Shaheed Hareed, all from Haryana, and Ameer Ahmad Fareed from Hyderabad.
The gang broke open the ATM machine using a gas cutter in the early hours of April 9 and made away with ₹18 lakh.
In the wee hours of Saturday, the Sub-Urban police spotted a white car moving suspiciously around a SBI ATM near Belur Cross; when the police tried to catch the car occupants, they attacked the police personnel and tried to escape. Following this, the police opened fire in self-defence and thwarted their plan to escape.
Gang members Tasleem and Shareef were injured. The injured policemen included sub-inspector Basavaraj and Manjunath, Feroz, and Raju Pawar, constables. They were admitted to GIMS Hospital in Kalaburagi for treatment.
Police Commissioner Sharanappa S. Dhage told presspersons said that Tasleem was involved in eight ATM robbery cases in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Telangana; Shareef was involved in one ATM robbery in Telangana; Ameer in seven ATM robbery cases, and Shaheed was wanted in ATM robbery cases in Telangana, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan.
Explaining the offenders’ modus operandi, Dr. Dhage said they usually targeted ATM located on the outskirts of city thinking that they would have lots of cash in them. They accused sprayed black paint on the CCTV cameras at the ATMs before the robbery.
The accused avoided toll roads to evade detection and avoided using mobile phones while committing the crimes.
Published – April 26, 2025 08:42 pm IST