Whilst wearing masks in public has been made mandatory because of the coronavirus pandemic, it has made identification of miscreants difficult for the police.
This turned out to be the case in connection with two recent abortive attempts made to rob ATM machines in the city, police sources said. Scanning of CCTV footage of the alleged breakins attempts hasn’t helped police much in identifying the culprits concerned, who, of course, wore masks.
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Sources in the anti-bank fraud wing of the detective department of Kolkata police said that what had made the difference was that conmen were using the masks to their advantage since in pre-covid times, such crimes would have been detected as the suspects woud have unmasked at some point of time after committing the crime.
The CCTV footage could not throw any light on the suspects who attempted to break in at an ATM machine of Andhra Bank near India Exchange Place under Hare Street police station and one of Central Bank of India ATM kiosk at Gauribari Lane, at Ultadanga under Burtolla police station.
The suspects fled when alarm bells went off, said an officer. ”The CCTV footage in both the kiosks have images of the suspects attempting to break-ins, On both the occasions, the alarm bells had come to the rescue” said an officer.
