Damoh (MP), Jul 26 (PTI) A gang of six people, including an engineering graduate, which robbed ATMs by blowing them up with explosives was busted in Madhya Pradesh, police said on Sunday.

The gang had blown up seven ATMs so far and looted Rs 46 lakh, Inspector General of Police (Sagar Zone) Anil Sharma told reporters here on Sunday.

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"They would conduct reconnaissance of ATMs to find out how much cash was stored in them. They would open the ATM by exploding a gelatin stick near the cash tray using a motorcycle battery," the IG said.

"One of the arrested persons, Devendra Patel (28), has a civil engineering degree and had also appeared for the UPSC exams. He used to device ways of committing robberies after watching television crime shows. We seized fake currency with face value of Rs 3.50 lakh and equipment from Patel," Sharma said.

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He said Rs 25.57 lakh cash, two country-made pistols, eight bullets, detonators, colour printer, three motorcycles, gelatin sticks, mobile phones and laptop have been seized from the gang.

The seven robberies the gang committed were in Damoh, Jabalpur, Panna and Katni districts.

On July 19, they had looted Rs 22 lakh from an ATM in Panna in this manner.

The other five members of the gang were identified as Santosh Patel (27), Nitesh Patel (25), Jairam Patel (32), Rakesh Patel (24) and Surat Lodhi (30).

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)