BHUBANESWAR: An inter-state criminal involved in a series of thefts at ATM kiosks was injured during an encounter with the police on the outskirts of the city in the wee hours of Sunday.
The 25-year-old Deepak Kumar of Nawada district in Bihar has been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here. His two associates, Deepak Kumar Pande (24) of Nawada district and Abhishek Kumar Singh (32) of Jharkhand’s Chatra district were also nabbed from the spot.
Police said the trio has allegedly been involved in at least 10 ATM theft cases in Puri and two in Bhubaneswar including one each under Lingaraj and Laxmisagar police stations. They had reportedly stolen money from an ATM in Puri, hours before the encounter with police.
At around 3 am, police were conducting night patrolling when they noticed a Tata Harrier suspiciously parked on the roadside at Puri bypass road near Kesura in the capital city. On seeing the police, the anti-socials reportedly opened fire at them. The cops then opened control firing and Kumar was shot on his left leg. Subsequently, the trio was overpowered and taken into custody.
Speaking to mediapersons, Twin City police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh said all the three were wanted by Ranchi police as they have committed several crimes there too. While the Lalpur police in Ranchi had registered a case against them in January this year, Bihar police too have booked them in two cases.
Elaborating on the modus operandi of the gang, Singh said the accused used to put adhesive in the ATM card’s slot and displayed their own mobile phone numbers as the bank helpline number to misguide victims to call them.
“Unaware, when the victims faced problems in taking out their ATM cards due to the glue, they contacted the number displayed by the accused. Kumar and his two associates waited outside and on receiving the calls from the unsuspecting citizens, they used to cleverly trick them to share their ATM card details and passwords. The accused used to convince them that there was some technical glitch in the kiosk and advised them to leave and raise a complaint with the bank concerned. They used to then immediately enter the ATM and withdraw the cash,” the commissioner said.
The investigators have already seized the CCTV footage of an ATM kiosk in Puri district where the accused can be seen taping an ATM card and stealing cash. Police are investigating the total money stolen by them. An SUV, a country-made semi-automatic pistol, one round live ammunition, two fired cartridges, 12 ATM cards of different customers, a knife and other articles have been seized from them. They had reportedly come to Odisha by car around three days back.