Bolangir: Bolangir police arrested Tuesday three members of a high profile ATM looting gang of Haryana. They had been duping depositors with cloned cards.
The accused were identified as Sanjeeb, 42, Sumit, 22, of Rohatak and Kuldip, 34, of Lohchab village in Jind district of Haryana. A skimmer and cloning machine, cash worth Rs 37,000, 14 ATM cards and three mobile phones were seized from their possession.
However, another accused in the case managed to give the slip to police. This was stated here by Sadar SDPO Tophan Bag at a press meet held at the Town police station, Tuesday. Town police IIC Priyanka Routray and sub-inspector Purnima Oram were present during the press conference.
The three were arrested in a joint operation by the Bolangir and Titlagarh police.
The incidents of duping came to the fore when R Sabyasachi Panda, a resident of Tikrapada in this town was withdrawing money from an Axis Bank ATM near the market, Monday. Panda raised alarm after one of the accused tried to swipe his debit card on a small device on the pretext of helping him withdraw money from the ATM.
Reports said, Panda had withdrawn Rs 10,000 and again tried to withdraw another Rs 10,000 which failed. On the pretext of offering help, the accused Sumit who entered the kiosk, tried to insert Panda’s card into a swipe machine which he was carrying.
Panda confronted him but Sumit threatened him and tried to escape. Locals rushed to the spot and and overpowered Sumit. They handed him over to the police. Subsequently, a joint police team tracked the mobile phones of the other accused. One was nabbed from near Deogaon and the third from the Titilagarh railway station. However, another member of the gang managed to escape, said Bag.
The SDPO informed the three accused used to steal money from the accounts of people by cloning their cards through skimming machines. “The gang members have sound technical knowledge. They would collect data from the debit cards of people by using another machine connected via Bluetooth. With the information, they used to prepare cloned cards,” Bag said.
Later, the gang members would manage to obtain the secret PIN and later withdraw money using the cloned cards. Further investigation into the case is underway, police said.
IANS