Gang behind ATM frauds busted, 2 held

Our Correspondent

Phagwara, March 4

An interstate gang involved in ATM fraud was busted with the arrest of two of its members in Phagwara on Saturday. Two other gang members were still at large. Phagwara City Station House Officer Amandeep Nahar said that the arrested accused were identified as Ajay Kumar, a resident of Lamma Pind and Bhupinder Singh of Ladhewali village.

He said that the gang members often approached the victims on the pretext of helping them withdraw money from their account, and swap their ATM cards upon learning their PIN.

The city police registered a case under Sections 420 and 34 of the IPC against four members of the gang who were withdrawing lakhs of rupees by changing the ATM cards and arrested two members and seized a motorcycle (PB-08DK-4309), Rs 1.07 lakh and 73 ATM cards from them. The police are searching for the absconded accused, identified as Som Dev and Raj Kumar, both residents of Upkar Nagar.

SHO Amandeep while giving information said that complainant Amarti Devi, a resident of Sham Nagar, whose husband Parameshwar Ram and son Sonu Kumar were living abroad. Amarti Devi has joint account with her husband at State Bank of India. The victim told the police that she sent her younger son Deepu and his friend Rahul to withdraw cash from the ATM.

Amarti told the police that when she went to the bank to get her passbook updated and found that only Rs 16 were balance in their account while Rs 5.82 lakh had been withdrawn.

When she enquired from her son Deepu and Rahul, they told her that when they went to withdraw the money, three young men standing outside ATM helped us to withdraw the money.

The SHO said during interrogation the accused revealed that they used to collect ATMs that were thrown away by people. According to him, they used to change the cards and commit frauds and so far they have committed about 10 frauds. Ajay Kumar was kingpin of the ATM robbers’ gang, the SHO said.