Three UP residents held for ATM fraud

Alipurduar: The Alipurduar District Police have arrested three individuals from Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, for their involvement in a series of ATM frauds.

Authorities seized a luxury car, 113 ATM cards, five ATM blocker sticks, adhesive tape, Rs 6,000 in cash, four fake Aadhaar cards and five smartphones from the suspects.

The accused, identified as Anil Saroj, Sunil Saroj and Bipin Kumar Singh, were travelling from Uttar Pradesh to Guwahati, Assam, defrauding ATM users in rural areas every 30-40 kilometres. On Sunday evening, they reached Kamakhyaguri in Alipurduar and set a trap at a bank ATM. They tricked a local youth by pretending the ATM was malfunctioning. Under the guise of helping him, they swapped his card with another from the same bank. Initially unaware of the deception, the victim later discovered the card was not his and promptly reported the incident to Kamakhyaguri Police Station. Police quickly apprehended two suspects at the ATM. The third suspect fled in a car but was intercepted at a checkpoint in Bhatibari.

The identity of the victims has been kept confidential for security reasons. Alipurduar Sub Divisional Police Officer Shrinivas M said: “Thanks to the victim’s alertness and our team’s prompt response, we were able to apprehend the suspects. Investigations are ongoing to uncover the full extent of their operations.”