Two professional robbers arrested in Haryana for ATM thefts across Northeast

The accused have been identified as Salim (26) and Rahul (31).

East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police (SP) for the East Khasi Hills district, Vivek Syiem, on Friday said that three ATM thefts were reported and the people involved in the theft were highly trained professionals, who took only 7 minutes to loot the ATMs. He said that this is the first instance of such a professional looting of the ATMs.

"The first one occurred on May 21, 2025, where the ATM, which was located at Mawkria, was robbed and cash of Rs. 28,13,100 was stolen. Subsequently, on December 30, another ATM at Smit was looted, and cash of about Rs. 35,57,000 was stolen. Then on February 8, the last ATM, which was looted, was at Millev and about Rs. 35,00,000 was looted from there. These people were professionals. The time they took to actually steal from every ATM was roughly about 7 minutes. So, highly professional people. We have actually never seen such professional looting of ATMs so far. And this is the first instance where we have seen people actually professionally looting it in such a short span of time," he said.

SP Syiem said that two cases were registered in Mawngap and one in Madanrting.

He further noted that a seven-member team conducted operations in Haryana with the help of the Central Investigation Agency and arrested two accused wanted in many ATM cases across the country.

"Following the investigation by the special cell, on February 27, a seven-member team led by our DSP Operations, Sinsang Samar, was deputed to Haryana Roop district. And on March 9, the seven-member team started to conduct operations there with the help of the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) of New District, Haryana, to arrest these people. As a result of these sustained efforts, two accused and these people were wanted and also involved in many such ATM cases in the country and also in particular Northeast, namely Salim (26), of Dorakhi and Rahul (31), of Bazidpur, were involved in the crime," he added.

He said that the main people behind the ATM loots were arrested, followed by local operations in Shillong, which led to the arrest of two more people who worked as local facilitators.

"The main people who were involved in cutting down the ATMs were arrested. And following their arrest and all that, the local operations in Shillong were also conducted, where we arrested two people who are the local facilitators, namely John Fisher Lingkhoi, 32 years, resident of Umpleng and Joyous Dora, 47 years, of Mawlai Mukwad. Both were arrested in Shillong after the operations in Haryana," he said.

For John Fisher and Joyous Dora, we've got six days' remand. And for Rahul and Salim, we've got five days' remand. We have taken the help of the local police, the SP said. (ANI)