Two persons, including an army sepoy who allegedly deserted from the force, have been arrested in connection with attempts to burgle a number of ATMs here in the past few weeks.

The two Haryana residents were arrested by Siliguri Metropolitan Police and they purportedly made an attempt to burgle a bank also in the city.

According to police sources, there were attempts to break ATMs at different locations in Siliguri on January 12 and 25. An attempt was also made on January 18 to break into a bank at Panitanki More here.

“After the incidents, we formed a special team and intensified the vigil and night patrolling across Siliguri. When the miscreants tried to rob an ATM booth at Deshbandhupara in the city three days ago, they were nabbed red-handed,” said a senior police officer.

The police, he said, seized some equipment which were used to dismantle ATMs and locks. Some cash has also been recovered from the duo.

The arrested have been identified as Pravin Kumar and Rahul Kumar. While Pravin is from Haryana and was involved in similar crimes earlier, Rahul is also from the same state but has been staying in Siliguri for many years.

D.P. Singh, the commissioner of the SMP, said: “During interrogation, we came to know that Pravin was a sepoy in the Jat Regiment of the army. In June last year, he was arrested in Gurgaon for his involvement in a similar case. After getting bail, he came here and involved the other person to carry out the crimes.”

“We have officially contacted the army to get details of him. We are trying to gather more details about them,” he added.

The police sources have said this is the second time in recent days that people from Haryana have been arrested. A few days ago, the police had arrested two others who were also from Haryana and had seized ATM cards and a swipe machine from them.

Appeal for CCTVs

Siliguri police commissioner D.P. Singh appealed to residents and different organisations to install more CCTV cameras at their respective houses and commercial places to curb crimes.

As of now, around 250 CCTV cameras are operational on streets in the SMP jurisdiction.

“We urge the citizens to install more CCTV cameras. It would improve surveillance on one hand and help in the quick detection of crimes on the other hand,” said Singh.