Udupi police have arrested two persons from Haryana allegedly involved in fraudulent withdrawal of ₹2.26 lakh from three bank accounts after swapping ATM cards of the account holders. All the three cases were reported in Byndoor police station limits of Udupi district on January 9.
The arrested persons are Sandeep, 36, and Ravi, 27. The two are accused in 20 cases, registered across India, of fraudulent withdrawal of money.
Balkis Banu, a 38-year-old from Shiroor village of Byndoor, was the first to report about the fraudulent withdrawal of money at 1 p.m. on January 9. In her complaint, Ms. Banu said she had to accompany her ailing mother-in-law to the hospital. She went to the ATM of Shirur Urban Bank, with her Karnataka Bank ATM card, around 10.15 a.m. to withdraw money. On seeing two persons inside the ATM, she asked them to come out. She then went inside. She could not withdraw money in the first instance. Before she could insert the card for the second time, one of the accused entered the kiosk. Pretending to help her, he took the ATM card from her, inserted it in the machine, but the transaction failed once again. He returned the card before leaving the kiosk along with the other accused person.
A few minutes later, Ms. Banu took a look at her ATM card. She was surprised to find the name of a different person on the card. She checked her bank statement and found that ₹5,000 had been withdrawn from her account at 10.33 a.m. She immediately blocked her account and filed a complaint.
An hour later around 2 p.m., Chaithra, 29, also a resident of Shiroor, reported to Byndoor police about losing ₹21,000 from her bank account. In her compliant, she said the two persons were inside the Canara Bank ATM in Shiroor market when she entered around 10 a.m. As she could not withdraw money, one of the accused persons took the ATM card and tried to help her. Later, Ms. Chaithra noticed that her ATM card has been swapped and ₹21,000 has been withdrawn from the account.
At 3 p.m., Chandrashekar, 62, from Kundapura taluk reported to Byndoor police about losing ₹2 lakh from his account following swapping of his ATM card.
A special team headed by Police Sub-Inspector B.N. Timmesh worked on some of the leads from the three cases and from similar cases reported in the past to trace the accused. The accused secretly recorded the pin number and used it to withdraw money after swapping ATM cards, police said.
