Alert ATM guard averts Rs17 lakh heist

MUMBAI: An alert guard foiled a theft of Rs17 lakh from a UTI Bank ATM at Bhandup (West), leading to the arrest of two men, including an employee of the bank’s maintenance department.

Manohar Sadanand Bharti, 23, approached the ATM guard at 11pm on Saturday posing as an employee and told him to pull down the shutter while he repaired the machine.

Guard Jayaprakash Shivprasad Yadav told police that after 15 minutes, when he peeped through the shutter, Bharti appeared confused. He had dismantled the machine and taken a lot of money out and was talking on the cell phone. Suspicious, Yadav called the police.

Senior Inspector Prakash Jadhav said, “We took Bharti into custody and he revealed that the plan was masterminded by his friend, Nilesh Pednekar.”

Pednekar, 27, is a UTI Bank employee. He was arrested from Kannamwar Nagar in Vikhroli (East) the next morning. Pednekar said, “The plan was hatched a month ago. I got hold of an identity card and pasted my friend’s photo on it with an authorised signature.”

Pednekar said he gave Bharti a sketch explaining how to remove one part so that money can be taken out. “But Manohar was unable to print the statement which we needed so the bank would not know about the robbery.”