Mumbai Crime: Drunk 26-year-old tears down ATM to retrieve stuck card

The ATM machine that Sanjay Balihariprasad Kumar smashed

In the wee hours of Thursday, when almost everyone was indoors owing to the lockdown and just-passed cyclonic storm Nisarga, a patrolling van in Kandivli East was hunting for an inebriated man who had just torn down an ATM to retrieve his stuck debit card.

The Mumbai Police Control Room (PCR) received a call around 12.38 am from a person, who told them that a man was smashing an ATM at Centrium Mall in Lokhandwala Complex. The PCR alerted the Samata Nagar patrolling cops, who rushed to the site, but no one was there.

They managed to reach the person who alerted the PCR and took from him the details of the accused's appearance and the direction he went. After a few minutes of driving to the same direction, the officers saw a bike near Kranti Nagar rickdhaw stand. Bystanders told them the rider ran inside the slum after parking his two-wheeler.

Police finally managed to nab the suspect, who they identified as Sanjay Balihariprasad Kumar, a 26-year-old resident of Malad West. "Kumar was inebriated when he noticed his ATM card got stuck in the machine. He smashed the computer screen and broke the machine to get it back," said an officer, adding that he has also confessed to committing the crime. He has been booked for theft and other offences, police said.

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