Three youngsters caught by the police during routine vehicle checking at Chilakalguda brought to fore the theft of about 400 bank cards from the Backward Classes Welfare office in Golnaka of Amberpet and withdrawal of Rs. 4 lakh using them.
While the detained youths admitted to stealing the debit cards during May and June of 2010, inquiries by the police revealed that no complaint was lodged with the local police there. “We're verifying the revelations made by Shiva Kumar, Manikantha and Satya. Three debit cards were seized from them,” the Chilakalguda Detective Inspector, Khaja Moinuddin, said on Friday.
Conflicting replies
While the first and second are pursuing engineering and degree courses, respectively, the third one is their childhood friend and a shop worker. Their associate, Naveen Reddy, is still at large. All the four are residents of Jillelaguda.
The three youths were taken to the police station when they gave conflicting replies about the three bank cards found in their possession after being intercepted on Thursday night. Initially, they evaded answers but finally admitted to their interrogators that they, along with Naveen, stole nearly 400 bank ATM cards from the B.C. Welfare office in Golnaka of Amberpet.
The cards were supposed to be given to B.C. students for withdrawing scholarship amounts. “When they went to the B.C. Welfare office for the first time in May, 2010, they found a bunch of bank cards in one room. They collected one card and came out,” the Inspector explained.
PIN on cover
To their surprise, the Personal Identification Number (PIN) was found written on the cover of the card. After withdrawing money from an ATM centre using the card, they stole nearly 400 bank cards from that office on four occasions. While two of them purchased bikes with the money withdrawn using those cards, one cleared his loans. Another made money by lending money on interest.
The police said they are yet to corroborate the admissions made by the detained trio by verifying with the B.C. Welfare office authorities and find out why complaints were not lodged so far.
