2 Romanians remanded to 14 days' police custody

Kolkata: The two Romanians who were arrested in connection with the ATM fraud by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kolkata Police from Delhi's Vasant Vihar were remanded to 14 days' police custody by Bankshall Court on Saturday.

The duo — Opera Obidu Simon (31) and Dumidru Caling (32) — who were brought from Delhi to Kolkata by a morning flight had stolen data from ATM cards in the city and cloned them to withdraw money in the National Capital.

Meanwhile, state Consumer Affairs minister Sadhan Pande has convened a meeting on Monday with the top brass of Kolkata Police and officials of nationalised and private banks in the city to chalk out a plan to prevent data theft from ATMs. "All the ATMs in the city will have to be manned. We need to have trained security personnel," the minister maintained.

Investigation into the case has revealed that one of the two arrested persons had come to Kolkata in the month of April and had put up in a hotel at Prantik Pally area in Kasba for a week. It was during that time when he, along with some others in the gang, had put skimmers in a number of ATM machines in the city and had collected data of ATM cards of a number of customers. The operation of siphoning of money was carried out from Delhi," a SIT officer said on conditions of anonymity.

The person had stayed at a Kasba hotel from April 30 to May 7. The sleuths have sought details of his stay at the hotel and visitors if any who had visited him during that time.

The Detective Department of Kolkata Police has tagged the duo in connection with a case of ATM fraud lodged by a high-ranked official of a nationalised bank at Park Street police station last month after some customers had complained of money siphoning from their accounts. The sleuths, on interrogation of the arrested persons, have recovered a number of ATM cards, electronic gadgets and cash from a hideout of the two at Hauz Khas in Delhi.

The police have learnt that as many as 300 ATM cards of a leading nationalised bank have been cloned by the fraudsters out of which 46 persons have already lodged their complaints at various police stations in the city. The police have instructed the bank to block the cards of the remaining 254 persons to prevent such incidents.

It may be mentioned that the investigation team had travelled to Delhi after identifying two of the gang members by scanning the CCTV footages that they had collected from a number of ATMs in the city in which there were reports of money laundering. The two were arrested from an ATM in Munirka area in Delhi after the sleuths found that their faces matched with those operating in the city.

The police have also urged a number of private and nationalised banks in the city to install anti-skimmer machines in all the ATMs. Banks are also issuing guidelines about precautionary measures to its customers to prevent such incidents of fraud.