Members of an ATM robbery gang, which was nabbed by the Namakkal district police near Komarapalayam on Friday, hailed from the Rajasthan-Haryana border region, police investigation has revealed.

Coordination between the police personnel of Kerala and Tamil Nadu led to the arrest of the gang. The Tamil Nadu police were involved in a chase before arresting the gang members. One person from the group was gunned down by the police and another was injured when they tried to flee to their native State in a container lorry, with the cash looted from three ATMs in Kerala.

The deceased was identified as Jumanddin, 37, of Haryana’s Palwal district and the injured, Mohammad Azru alias Azar Ali, 30, from Bisru Village in the State’s Mewat district. The other arrested persons are Irfan, 32, from Dwaraka Puri; Sowkeen Khan, 23, from Mallai; Sabeer, 26, from Kudavali; Mubarak, 18, from Lacknakar; and Muhammed Ikram, 42, from Bisru. The probe revealed that the gang had initially reached Chennai, and hatched the plan in the city before executing it at Thrissur.

Their targets were only “vulnerable ATMs” of nationalised banks. “The arrested suspects are being questioned about their involvement in other ATM burglary cases in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring States. Our counterparts in Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are investigating. The authorities in Haryana have also been notified…,” Namakkal Superintendent of Police S. Rajesh Kannan told The Hindu.

According to the police, gangs hailing from Mewat had been involved in ATM thefts at many places in the State in 2021 and 2023, and had been subsequently nabbed. In 2021, the Chennai police identified 38 persons who were allegedly involved in “novel thefts” at ATMs in Chennai, Puducherry, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi, and Mumbai. Between June 15 and June 18, they stole over ₹5 crore from ATMs of the State Bank of India at 16 places in Chennai. Subsequently, the bank lodged complaints with the police, who then traced one of the accused, Amir Arsh, 25, with the help of the Haryana police. Subsequently, other gang members were caught.

In 2023, another gang from Mewat was involved in thefts at a series of ATMs in Tiruvannamalai. The main accused, J. Asif Javed from Nuh, was arrested. “We see a similar pattern in these cases,” an official said.