ATM fraud case: Accused sent to police custody

The ATM fraud case in which four persons were sent to police custody on Wednesday has brought to light stunning aspects of ATM-related crimes. It was the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court here that sent the four accused - Kuldeep Singh, Sunny Gupta, Ramandeep Singh and Sumit Gupta - to police custody.

 Assistant Commissioner of Police, Cantonment, M G Haridas, who is in charge of the investigation, said that they have got the four suspects in custody for six days. The four were in judicial custody in Kollam district jail and were produced before the Magistrate on Wednesday.

 The police team investigating into the complaint of the swindling of about ` 22 lakh from a new generation bank had got the custody of the four after they found that the same gang who committed a similar fraud in Kollam was behind the crime in the city.

 The police team under Haridas had interrogated the four suspects in Kollam after  suspicion led to them owing to the similarities in the way the crimes were executed in the city.

 All the gang members hail from Ludhiana in Punjab. Haridas also said that a police team has also been sent to Ludhiana to bring the two accused in custody there.

 The accused indulged in the crime employing a simple technique. They took advantage of the limited intelligence of the computer programme that controlled the ATMs. The machines would register no transaction if the currency notes withdrawn are not taken from the slot. The machine would retract the notes before registering null transaction.

 After withdrawing an amount using a forged ATM card, the accused would leave a portion of the notes in the dispenser-cum-presenter tray itself, resulting in reversal of transaction.  They used debit cards acquired using identity proofs of other people to withdraw cash. It is said that they had amassed over ` 5 crore by swindling banks through ATM counters across the country.