THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Romanian national, who underwent trial in the sensational 2016 ATM heist cases, has been sentenced to three years imprisonment after being found guilty of data theft and hacking.
The sentence on Ilie Gabriel Marian was pronounced by the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court here on Thursday.
Concluding the trial that lasted for about 44 months, the court found that the accused had committed offences under the IT Act Section 66 and 43 in all the seven cases that were registered against him. However, he was acquitted of forgery charges levelled under the Indian Penal Code.
The sentences in all the cases will run concurrently. Since he has already served the jail term, he will be set free.
Advocate Dileep Sathyan appeared for the prosecution. The police had claimed that Marian was responsible for collecting sensitive details of ATM cards from an SBI ATM kiosk at Althara using electronic devices.
The information thus gleaned clandestinely were used to clone ATM cards using which Rs 3.5 lakh was stolen from several accounts. Marian was the one among the six accused who was taken to the dock. The rest of the members - all hailing from Romania - are still absconding.
Though the state police managed to get the custody of Ianut Alexander Marino, identified as the kingpin of the gang, he later fled the country after securing a bail. Ianut was handed over to the state police after the Interpol facilitated his detention in Nicaragua in 2018.
The ATM heist that shocked the country took place in the first week of August in 2016. This was the first occasion where a heist was committed using a skimming machine.
The Romanian gang had arrived in the capital on July 8, 2016. They collected ATM card and PIN details of several customers by installing a Wi-Fi router inside the ATM kiosk. They also captured the details of the debit cards used by unsuspecting users.