POLICE have achieved a major breakthrough in the high-profile Bank of Maharashtra ATM rob bery case in Katni district. They have arrested a key accused from Uttar Pradesh. The stolen ATM machine has also been recovered from a pond in a forest near Kelwara village in Katni district. However, the approximately Rs 11.35 lakh cash that was in the machine is still missing. On Thursday evening, Superintendent of Police, Abhinav Vishwakarma held a press conference to reveal details of the case.

 

SP, Vishwakarma stated that during the investigation into the theft of Bank of Maharashtra ATM from the Madhavnagar police station area, police arrested the accused Arif alias Batu (35) from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. Arif is the son of Momin Khan and a resident of Rasulpur Aurangabad, near the Kali River, in the Bhavnpur police station area of Meerut. During questioning, the arrest ed accused Arif confessed that he committed the crime with five other accomplices – Intezar alias Kala, Mohammad Yameen, Inam, Ehsan and Muqeem.

 

All of them are relatives and friends. This gang is originally from Uttar Pradesh and has several serious cases registered against them in various dis tricts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, including theft, robbery, murder, and attempted murder. Police recovered the stolen ATM machine and a Maruti XL-6 car from the arrested accused Arif alias Batu. The SP stated that the stolen ATM machine was found in a pond near the Kelwara forest. The machine was badly damaged, and the cash had already been removed from it. According to the police, this gang primarily targeted ATMs located on highways. They used pick-up trucks to uproot and steal the ATMs.

 

Police interrogation revealed that this international gang of thieves targeted ATM machines located on road sides or near highways. First, these accused would steal a pick-up truck from the area surrounding the crime scene. Then, using the pick-up truck, they would tie a rope around the ATM machine and pull it, causing the machine to be uprooted. The uprooted ATM machine was loaded into a pickup truck. After the crime, they would aban don the pick-up truck near the crime scene and flee. In this incident in Madhavnagar, the accused first stole a pick up truck from the Kuthla police station area.

 

Then, using the same vehicle, they tied a rope around the Bank of Maharashtra ATM, uprooted it, loaded it into the vehicle, and hid it in the forest near the highway. The ATM was later broken open and the money was stolen. Rahul Mishra, the Branch Manager of Bank of Maharashtra, Bargawan branch, filed a report at the Madhavnagar police station on December 5, 2025. He stated that on the night of December 6, 2025, at around 2:26 AM, he received information about the theft from the CCTV surveillance control team in Hyderabad. Upon reaching the ATM site, he found that the ATM machine had been uprooted and stolen by unknown thieves.

 

The stolen ATM machine contained approximately Rs. 11,35,000 in cash. A case was registered at Madhavnagar police station under sections 331(4), 305(1), and 324(5) of the BNS, and an investigation was launched. The SP stat ed that during question ing, the arrested accused, Arif alias Batu, revealed the names of his five oth er accomplices—Intizar alias Kala, Mohammad Yameen, Inam, Ehsan, and Muqeem. Police teams are continuously conducting raids to apprehend these absconding accused, and the remaining accused will be arrested soon, along with the recovery of the stolen cash.