Bhayandar: Less than 72 hours after they duped a senior citizen in the Ghodbunder road area of Thane, two notorious crooks landed in the custody of Kasarwadavli police for their involvement in cheating several people inside ATM kiosks by replacing their debit/credit cards and using their personal identification numbers (PINs) for fraudulent cash withdrawals.
According to the police, the accused are identified as Giasuddin Abu Siddique (26) and Shaizan Abdul Rehman Aagha (24), both residents of Mumbra. Apart from mobile phones and cash, police recovered 55 ATM cards issued by multinational and private sector banks from their possession.
In response to the complaint, a special team from the detection unit headed by API Sagar Jadhav under the supervision of senior police inspector Kishore Khairnar apprehended the duo on the virtue of a specific tip-off from informants about their anticipated arrival in the premises of Mumbra railway station on Thursday.
Posing as customers in queue, the duo targeted people, especially senior citizens, who visited ATMs to withdraw money. Under the pretext of offering help, the accused would keep observing the PIN that the victim was entering in the system and replace their card, to make fraudulent withdrawals at other ATM kiosks.
While they confessed to their involvement in duping over 20 people from different parts of the country, including Jaipur, Sholapur, Karnataka and Mumbai, the duo have been booked in eight cases registered at Kurla, Kalyan, Thane and Bhiwandi police stations. Both had successfully managed to evade the police dragnet so far.
