Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The Indore police’s Crime Branch arrested three people in connection with thefts from cash deposit machines in the city on Monday. The accused have confessed to stealing cash from the machines with the help of a highly mechanised and sophisticated device and debit cards. After using a debit card, they used to stop the transactions for stealing cash. So far, the accused have confessed to stealing cash from 7 ATM booths in the city.
ASP (Crime) Guru Prasad Parashar said that a gang was involved in stealing cash from CDMs and ATM machines of a particular bank using a device over a span of three months. So far, the gang had stolen lakhs of rupees from various machines in the city. A team of the Crime Branch was constituted to identify the accused. The team checked the CCTVs of the ATM booths and other possible places in the city and other cities and states. The route charts of the suspects were also prepared by the Crime Branch team.
During the investigations, it was found that gangs from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were active in the city. Their movements have also increased in the city over the past three months. The Crime Branch officers collected further information about the gangs and they were under surveillance.
A tip was received that some men in an SUV were seen roaming around the Lasudia, Vijay Nagar and Hira Nagar areas. The informer also shared their location. Acting on the tip, the Crime Branch personnel—accompanied by the Pardeshipura police—reached MR-4, near Bhandari Bridge, and managed to interce4pt the SUV. The people sitting in the vehicle were identified as Bajrang, alias Sawan Somwanshi, a resident of Jethwara in Pratapgarh (Uttar Pradesh); Mehtab Hassan of Pratapgarh; and their driver, Manish Kumar Choubey of Sagar district.
Three country-made pistols with 6 live cartridges, a highly mechanised and sophisticated device and a screwdriver, 6 ATM cards and Rs 49,800 in cash were seized from the accused. The accused allegedly confessed to stealing cash from ATM machines and CDMs of a bank in the Hira Nagar, Raoji Bazaar, Chhoti Gwaltoli, Chandan Nagar, MG Road and Pardeshipura areas. The accused had targeted these seven locations on September 9.
Over 3 dozen cases all over the country
ASP Prasad Parashar said the accused had confessed to committing more than three dozen incidents in the country, so far. Information about the crimes in the other cities is being collected from the accused. More accused will soon be arrested in connection with the crimes. They had committed the first crime in Rajendra Nagar three months ago. They had done over 20 transactions and stolen lakhs of rupees from a machine there
Modus operandi
The accused used to hire luxury cars to recce various ATM booths to commit the crimes. After gathering information about the booths, the accused used to commit crimes at the booths during the mornings or nights when security guards were missing from the booths. The driver of the vehicle used to drop the accused at different ATM booths. The accused used to put a debit card in the machine and, then, insert the highly mechanized, sophisticated device and a screwdriver into the withdrawal section. The speciality of this device is that it blocks the cash in the withdrawal section itself and notifies that the transaction was declined. The device is basically used to deactivate the machine’s mechanism. In this way, the accused used to steal cash from the machines.
About the gang
The police believe that accused Bajrang was the kingpin of the gang. He was in jail in Sagar in connection with stealing cash from an ATM booth. During his time in jail, he met driver Manish Choubey. After being released from the jail, Bajrang contacted Manish and called a vehicle. They and other accomplices reached the city and committed the crimes. The police said the accused might confess to committing more crimes in the city
