NELLORE: The district police on Friday nabbed an interstate gang wanted in 1,000 cybercrime offences across 16 States in the last three years, and recovered `7 lakh from it. The police also seized a skimming device, ATM cards, laptops and mobile phones from its possession.
The arrested gang members were identified as Sandeep Kumar (32), Manjeet (29) and Jagjeet (29) from Khera taluk of Bhiwani district in Haryana.
Disclosing the case details to mediapersons here, district Superintendent of Police Aishwarya Rastogi explained the modus of operandi of the gang, which used to target aged and illiterate people at ATMs.
“The trio travelled across the country and committed numerous offences. They use a handheld magnetic card reader to deceive the victims. Further, they transfer the entire data of the ATM card through Bluetooth device to their mobile phones. Later, they clone the ATM cards and withdraw cash from the victims’ accounts,” the SP explained.
The gang also committed similar offences under the limits of Dargamitta police station. Based on the complaints received from the victims, Dargamitta police registered cases and took up investigation.
The SP formed special teams and deployed CCS sleuths to apprehend the accused. Following a tip-off, the special teams apprehended the trio at Nellore railway station.
The SP said the gang was involved in cybercrime offences in 16 States (Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. As many as 16 cases were registered against the gang in Nellore district, eight cases each in Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam, seven cases in Anantapur, three cases in Guntur, four cases in Kurnool and one case in Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh and one case each in Wanaparthy and Hyderabad in Telangana, the SP added.
Nellore City DSP J Srinivasulu Reddy, Chinna Bazar Circle Inspector P Srinivasan, CCS Circle Inspectors Sk Babi John Syeda and P Akkeswar Rao, Dargamitta Sub-Inspector D Vijay Kumar were also present at the news conference.