Jammu- Two men from north Kashmir’s Bandipora district were arrested for allegedly killing a security guard of an ATM here and attempting to steal the cash in the machine, police said on Friday.
The incident that occurred on Thursday night has triggered protests in the city.
“We came to know about the killing of a security guard at an ATM in Nanak Nagar on Thursday night. A police team rushed to the spot and a probe was launched,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Jammu Sridhar Patil told reporters here.
The deceased was identified as Raju Sharma of the New Plot area of Jammu, he said.
A case was registered and the police cracked the case within hours, the SSP said.
He said the accused — Mohammad Kaif Lone and Waqas Bashir Lone of Bandipore in north Kashmir — were living in a rented accommodation at Nanak Nagar.
“Both of them have been arrested,” Patil said.
He said the duo had planned to steal the cash in the ATM. “On being resisted by the guard, they attacked him inside the restroom by initially smothering his face with a blanket,” the SSP said.
Sharma was the lone breadwinner of the family and was the only son of his parents. He had seven sisters, his relatives said. He is survived by his parents, wife and two children.
A large number of people, including the family members and neighbours of the deceased, staged a protest here on Friday morning, demanding that the accused be hanged.
The protesters blocked the New Plot road and demanded a fair and speedy investigation into the matter so that justice is delivered to the family.
“Raju was the lone breadwinner of his family. He was working round the clock to feed his family. The accused should be hanged,” Narinder Sharma, a relative of the deceased, said.
The family of the deceased urged the government for financial help and a job in the bank for one of its members.
The president of the Mission Statehood and West Assembly movement, Sunil Dimple, demanded a job in the Jammu and Kashmir Bank and a Rs-20 lakh compensation for the 30-year-old wife of the victim, who has a two-year-old daughter and a son to look after.
Officers of the administration led by ADC Ghansham Singh, SSP Patil, DGM, J&K Bank Sumit Kumar rushed to the spot to pacify the protesters.
Dimple said a written assurance was given by the ADC that a compensation of Rs 20 lakh to the family will be announced by the DGM, J&K Bank, Rs one lakh will be given by the security agency that had employed the deceased and Rs 50,000 by the district development commissioner. (PTI)
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