ATM fraud: Two more nabbed from Chennai

Kolkata: Two more persons have been arrested from Chennai for having links with a racket that duped people who withdrew cash from ATMs using skimmer device. They will be produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate's (ACJM) Court at Bidhannagar on Wednesday.

On February 1, Pulak Banerjee, a resident of Serampore, punched his ATM card at a State Bank of India (SBI) ATM on the Poura Bhavan premises to withdraw Rs 8,000. After waiting for a few seconds, Banerjee realised that due to some technical problem, money was not disbursed. He left the ATM counter without cancelling the transaction.

As soon as he went out, two youth entered. When Banerjee went outside, he got a text on his phone stating that Rs 8,000 has been withdrawn from his account.

He immediately rushed to the ATM counter and saw the two doing something to the ATM machine. When he opposed them, the duo allegedly tried to flee. Having no other option, Banerjee shouted for help. Meanwhile, an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of Bidhannagar Traffic Police, Nihar Biswas, was passing through the area. Hearing Banerjee's shout, he rushed inside and was able to catch one of the miscreants identified as Sanjay Mandal.

During interrogation police came to know that it is a huge racket which operates across the country. Later, the case was handed over to Bidhannagar Cyber Crime police station for further investigation. Following this, sleuths raided a hotel at Triplicane in Chennai and arrested two persons identified as Vijay Kumar Mandal and Sugendar Mandal of Jamtara in Jharkhand.