BHUBANESWAR: Commissionerate police on Monday, August 30, 2021, arrested three persons - Md Salman and Raj Tanwar of Faridabad and Kafhaiyat of Nuh district in Haryana for stealing cash from various ATMs in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
The accused had stolen Rs 57,500 from five ATMs in the State capital. This apart, they had also targeted six ATMs in Cuttack. One case each was registered against them at Lingaraj, Laxmisagar and Saheed Nagar police stations in Bhubaneswar and Malgodown police station in Cuttack. Sources said the police started investigation into the matter after the thefts were caught on CCTV cameras installed in the ATM kiosks.
Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, Bhubaneswar DCP Umashankar Dash informed that the trio had arrived in Odisha in an SUV and targeted different ATMs including that of the State Bank of India (SBI). The accused used genuine debit cards to withdraw cash but inserted a steel plate in to prevent the machines from dispensing the currency notes.
As soon as the ATM displayed the message - ‘unable to process your transaction’, the accused removed the steel plates and collected the money. “They used to collect cash from the ATM kiosks and additionally the banks refunded them the money assuming their transactions were unsuccessful due to technical reasons,” said Dash. Police have seized an SUV without registration number, 15 ATM cards of different banks, five steel plates, Rs 90,000 in cash and three mobile phones from them.