Paid peanuts, handlers looting money meant for ATMs

Some employees, driven by financial desperation, are allegedly stealing money from the cash cassettes meant for ATMs. These cassettes hold significant sums, and the temptation to take money becomes overwhelming when faced with months of unpaid wages and burden of running the household.

Recently, an ATM cash handler stole Rs 66 lakh that he was supposed to deposit into several machines. The case was initially presumed as the handiwork of robbers but deeper investigations revealed that it was in fact the handler who had made good with the money. Ongole police arrested the handler and his gang, and retrieved the money.

In a similar case in the city, a person assigned to deposit funds into ATMs in Tadbund and Bowenpally, absconded with Rs 3 crore. A complaint was filed with the Central Crime Station (CCS) and the case is still under investigation.

The common factor among these handlers-turned-criminals is the meagre amounts paid by several cash management companies to their handlers. Reports are that the workers are being paid between Rs 13,000 and Rs 15,000 per month, which is way below minimum wages as per industry standards.

The base-level employees of cash management companies are designated to work towards refilling money into ATMs. These employees are so underpaid for all their toil that many of them are unable to assure two square meals a day to the family.

A. Prabhakar, who works as a cash handler in Himayatnagar, said, “We are working long hours under tough conditions. Almost every month I have to take a loan from my friends. Many of us are struggling to make ends meet. It is frustrating and outright demoralising.”

M. Srinivas, who worked in a cash management company in Bowenpally for over more than ten years, voiced similar concerns. He said, “The management neglected their employees who worked diligently. The situation was bad and it turned worse during Covid-19. Employees were made to work hard and under pressing circumstances but were paid peanuts.”

Going further into the issue, Prabhakar opined, “It’s a sure shot recipe for disaster; employees, who are underpaid, get to sit on a pile of money, which they are supposed to deposit in ATMs.”

Meanwhile, an official from CCS said, “Investigations in most of the ATM robberies and cash disappearing from the cash management offices show that it is the insiders who are committing crimes. When they are underpaid, and are moving huge cash from one place to another, the temptation to go for the killing is perhaps a natural tendency. This issue has to be addressed in earnest.”