More details of the series of ATM thefts in the city last week have come out with one more person lodging a complaint with the Pettah police.
Sreekumaran Nair of Manacaud said in the complaint that he had been duped of Rs.40,000 from an ATM at Pallimukku Junction, near Pettah.
The Pettah incident was reportedly on the same day as the two incidents reported earlier. (Rs.20,000 was stolen from one person’s account through an ATM at Peroorkada and Rs.30,000 from an ATM at Jawahar Nagar).
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The police said the closed-circuit camera visuals obtained from the ATMs confirmed that the same gang was behind all the three incidents and also behind another incident in the Fort area not too long ago.
Mr. Nair said he tried to withdraw money from one of the machines in the counter and a stranger offered help when the transaction failed. He refused the offer and left. Soon after, he received an SMS intimating the withdrawal Rs.40,000. Mr. Nair approached the bank authorities the next day under the assumption that it was a technical error. However, the bank confirmed that his money had been withdrawn. The police had been pasting the photographs of the suspects in all ATMs, and despatching the same to police stations across the State. The gang operated by tampering with the keypads and circuits of the machines and targeted ATM kiosks which had two machines, and mostly those of State Bank of Travancore.