On a
Sunday morning, an automated Teller Machine was discovered missing in Colvale by the bank
officials and the police was reported immediately. 10 lakhs were robbed from
the ATM of a nationalised bank. Thanks to the CCTV footage the culprits were
seen with masks and raincoats escaping with machine in an auto rickshaw. Well,
this is not new.
There have been several cases in Goa.
In a previous incident last year robbers fled away with 9 lakh
by blasting open Bank of India ATM in Arambol. The CCTV camera was painted
black by the robbers.
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In yet another incident, in Panjim, a masked robber was
hammering the security guard of Bank of Maharashtra severely.
It’s time that the banks upgrade their security level.
Long ago, in 2015, there was an incident in Bangalore where a
woman was hit inside the ATM by the robbers, since then appointing security
guards by the Bank at every ATM had become mandatory.
However, it is has been noted that many ATM kiosks in the rural
areas and lonely places are the targeted places of robberies and attacks.
According to a Nationalised Bank Official Guru Prasad, the footfall during the
day is more compared to that of night. And is more in the city areas than the
inside lanes and roads. Therefore many banks who have high security policy
avoid keeping ATM kiosks in the lonely places.
“The best option to avoid robbery is to shut down the ATM during
the night in such places. Because let’s be honest, very few maximum five to six
people use the ATM in the night, they too are often tourists,” he says.
He also adds that security guards are only allotted to certain
locations.
That is one big problem now. Superintendent of Police North Goa,
Chandan Chaudhary clearly states that an advisory has been written to all Bank
branches which involves the guidelines of having security guards at all the
ATMs or have an alarm system. “The ATM kiosk that was recently robbed was
located in a rural area, without a security guard. Irrespective of giving them
the advisory they have not followed and this ultimately leads to such cases.
Some banks do have the alarm system but not all,” she says. She also points out
that having an in built alarm system that would directly alert the head office
would also benefit.
Few locals suggest that having a security guard without being
smart is useless. Hence a well skilled security guard needs to be allotted to
the ATM locations. “They are armed, how they can be beaten up if they were
doing their job properly?” questions Chaya Naik from Bicholim.
According to sources, after continuous threats towards ATM
Kiosks, the RBI is deciding to install a centralised CCTV system. The system is
ought to be placed at the police department. As soon as any transaction is
happening in that particular location the ATM will pop up on the screen among
all the others and if any threat is noticed the police can immediately swing
into action.
The only bottleneck to this is if more than 4 ATMs are used
simultaneously, footage from all CCTvs will not pop up real time, explains a
Bank Official from Panjim. However in the long run these can be tackled. A
beginning can still be made.
Through research, it is not that easy to rob an ATM. Bank
officials have said that to rob the ATM in the kiosk requires more than five to
six hours but other ways can be blasting open the machine (explosives), using
gas cutters or carrying away the entire machine by the help of electronic
equipments. In the Colvale incident the entire machine was taken, because
according to reports the machine was later found dumped on the Revora-Tivim
road.
While this is old, banks are now worried about skimming
problems.
“Crooks
are coming up with new ways to outsmart the system. Nowadays we need to be
alert because some thieves use skimming devices to get your pin” states local
Annalie Gracias who lives far away in Cansaulim and where ATMs rarely have a
security guard.
