A man who allegedly broke the glass barrier of an ATM kiosk on Ballygunge Circular Road and was trying to break open the machine was arrested early on Tuesday after an alarm linked to the kiosk went off at Ballygunge police station.

“The alarm at the police station went off half an hour past Monday midnight, indicating that someone was trying to rob the ATM. On rushing to the spot, our team found a youth inside the kiosk. He had smashed the glass barrier of the kiosk and was trying to break the ATM machine,” said an officer at the police headquarters in Lalbazar.

The accused was identified as Sukanto Gayen, 20, a resident of the Peyarabagan slum, not far from the ATM kiosk.

The kiosk did not have a guard.

Last week, Calcutta police had arrested a Haryana-based gang that had allegedly been involved in breaking and robbing ATM kiosks in Calcutta and possibly elsewhere, too.

The police said the gang used to smear the CCTV cameras inside ATM kiosks with black paint so that nothing was visible in the footage. They apparently used professional burglary tools to break open ATMs.

The youth who was arrested on Tuesday did not seem to have applied the modus operandi of that gang.

“Prima facie, this youth does not appear to be a member of that group. He will be subjected to a medical test,” an officer of Ballygunge police station said.