In a major success, the Pathankot Police have busted an inter-state gang that duped thousands of people by swapping their cards and withdrawing money from their accounts besides recovering 66 ATM cards, Rs 19000, a swipe machine and SUV car.
The arrested accused have been identified as Ramesh Kumar, Pareen and Sikander, all residents of Hisar, Haryana
In a press conference, SSP Pathankot Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh said that taking serious note of the incidents of ATM card frauds, a special drive 'Cyber Security' was launched, under which the entire district was kept on vigil to curb such incidents. He added that the gang members were used to move around in different states of North India in four-wheelers and targeting ATM booths sans security guards. Special instructions were given to all the Police officers to nab the gang.
The SSP stated that on August 8, a complaint was received from Kanta Devi in which she stated that she had gone with her daughter to the ATM located at Sarna station to withdraw Rs 2000. "While my daughter was at ATM, some miscreants entered the booth and changed the card on pretext of offering help".
"After coming out of the ATM, my daughter noticed that the card was different with Rajni Devi's name instead of my card. We saw that the people, who entered the ATM after us, fled in a Maruti Ertiga SUV car number (HR 61 D 8358)", added Kanta Devi. She further stated that after sometime, my daughter's mobile number received the message of the transaction of Rs 75,000 and ATM withdrawal of Rs 38000 from her account.
SSP Khakh said acting swiftly on the complaint, the police team reached the spot and scanned the CCTV footage from many places of the city. After the information developed from the spot, a red alert call was issued to apprehend the accused. He said that a joint team of CIA Staff Pathankot and Police Station Sadar Pathankot stopped the suspected Maruti Ertiga car at a checking point at Kotli Nahar and during the search, the cops recovered a swipe machine and cash from car occupants.
Khakh said that during preliminary interrogation, the arrested accused disclosed that they used to target ATMs without guards, duped the people by changing ATM cards on the pretext of helping people withdrawing money from ATMs. The accused used to withdraw money immediately by swiping from the swipe machine or by going to different places and withdrawing cash from ATMs.
The SSP said that the arrested accused revealed that they were duping people for the last 2-3 years and earlier they used to withdraw money from ATMs, but now they had joined hands with Parveen Kumar, a Haryana resident, who provided them the swipe machine and entered into a 60:40 partnership to share the looted money. "In the initial phase, Police had found that the accused had carried out transactions of Rs 2.31 lakh from this swipe machine and withdrew thousands of cash from the ATMs in a single day. He said that detailed investigation will be carried to find out the final figure of frauds committed by them”, the SSP said. The accused admitted that they had collected lakhs of rupees in the last two years and used it for the marriage of one of their sister and the rest money spent to live a luxurious lives. They used to pay a rent of Rs 2000 per day for the vehicle used to travel to different areas.
SSP told that the arrested accused would be produced before the magistrate and their remand would be sought to nab the accomplices.