3 of interstate ATM fraud gang arrested

Ludhiana: Khanna police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested three members of an interstate ATM fraud gang. The arrested are Mohammad Wazid of Palwal, Abbas and Altaf, both of Nuh. Altaf is an electronic engineer from NIT, Kurukshetra.

The gang had fraudulently withdrawn money from ATMs in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, NCR, UP, among other states, with the help of ATM cards and special equipment.

Addressing the media, the Khanna SP (investigation) said, “On a tip-off, a car coming from Lalheri Chowk was stopped at Malerkotla Chowk, GT Road, Khanna, and the accused arrested on Monday.”

Police have registered a fraud and a theft case against them at Khanna city-II police station. Eleven ATM cards of various banks and two steel equipment (kundi) were recovered from them.

Police said, “The accused told during interrogation that they would withdraw money from ATMs by inserting a specially-designed steel equipment (kundi) in money dispensing tray. When money was dispensed from the tray, they would switch off the power supply of ATM and withdraw the money by removing that equipment from the tray. They would then register an online complaint with the bank for refunding their money, saying it was stuck in the ATM.”

“They have done a fraud of Rs 6 crore with various banks in Goa, Kerala, West Bengal, Delhi, NCR, UP, Maharashtra and other states. Their other associates belong to villages near Gangot of Palwal district. Gangot village has become second Jamtara as most of the persons there commit these types of frauds,” police added.

The property of the accused worth Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore has been identified and will be attached, said a cop.