Bhubaneswar: Man held in connection with ATM fraud

BHUBANESWAR: A 29-year-old man, who was previously arrested in at least 30 cases for allegedly stealing money from ATMs in and outside the state, again landed up in jail for the same offence.
The special squad of the commissionerate police on Tuesday arrested Sambhav Acharya, the man, from an apartment in the Patia area here.
Police said Jajpur native Acharya targeted the people who were not used to ATM operations.“Acharya had been stalking senior citizens and women to the unguarded ATMs and closely observing their activities. If he noticed that the users faced difficulty in withdrawing cash, he would chip in. The card holders would then share their PINs with the accused,” deputy commissioner of police Umashankar Dash said.
Dash added that on the pretext of helping them, Acharya secretly replaced their debit cards with the duplicate ones. “He inserted the duplicate cards in the ATMs and told the victims that there were some technical problems in the machine. When the victims left the ATMs, he used their cards and withdrew cash,” Dash said.
Sources said police had been on the lookout for him after he allegedly executed a similar theft in an ATM at Saheed Nagar here in May. “During interrogation, we found that he was involved in eight such cases across Bhubaneswar. He was arrested in at least 30 such cases in the last seven years,” the DCP added.
Police said Acharya was arrested by the Mumbai Police in 2018 on the same charges. “We have come to know that he was involved in five ATM theft cases in Pune, Maharashtra. He confessed during the interrogation. We have informed our counterparts in Pune. If they want, they may seek his remand. We are also planning to take him on police remand for further questioning,” Dash said. The police have seized six debit cards, two mobile phones and Rs 40,000 in cash from him.