Palghar cops bust 4-men gang committing ATM frauds in Maharashtra

Palghar (Maharashtra), Dec 5 (IANS) In a breakthrough, the Palghar Police busted a four-member gang committing ATM Card frauds all over Maharashtra and nabbed the accused from Thane district, an official said here on Thursday. 

According to Superintendent of Police Balasaheb Patil, after a detailed investigation, the Palghar Police have nabbed the four accused holed up in Titwala and Ulhasnagar towns of Thane district.

They were identified as Kismat M. Shaikh, 27; his brother Hasmat B. Shaikh, 32; Haresh R. Pradhan, 21 - all residents of Kalyan, and Deepak B. Jha, nabbed from Ulhasnagar after the other accused broke down during sustained questioning and spilled the beans on him.

SP Patil said that on September 27, a senior citizen, Bhagwan N. Hatekar, 67, lodged a complaint alleging ATM fraud, with the Palghar Police.

According to the complaint, Hatekar had gone to withdraw money from his Bank of India account through an ATM card that day.

At that time, 3 strangers approached and sweet-talked him saying they would help withdraw the cash from the ATM machine, to which he agreed.

However, by a sleight of hand, the trio managed to swap his ATM card with another one, handed it over to him and forcibly withdrew Rs 50,000 from his account before decamping from there.

Taking serious note of Hatekar's complaint, Palghar SP Patil and Additional SP Vinayak Narle, Crime Branch Police Inspector Pradeep Patil and others launched an investigation into the case for over three months.

The team comprising police officer Rohit Khot plus others launched a manhunt for the three suspects, and following a tip-off, traced their current whereabouts to Titwala town in the adjoining Thane district.

A special team was quickly despatched to Titwala where the sleuths managed to nab the trio, comprising the Shaikh brothers, Pradhan, 21, all residents of Kalyan, and Jha from Ulhasnagar.

During questioning by the police, the four accused confessed to their crimes and the Palghar Police recovered a second-hand white SUV which was used in committing various frauds, plus cash of Rs 30,000.

Explaining the modus operandi, SP Patil said that the gang used to lay in wait for gullible victims, engage them in conversation and deploy tricky methods, and would get their ATM card PIN details which they misused to withdraw cash later from their target’s bank accounts.

Further probe has revealed that they were luring and cheating people all over Maharashtra with 19 similar fraud cases pending against them in Palghar, Nagpur, Thane and other places.

The Palghar Police with help from the Cyber Police Cell, are now trying to track the unknown tentacles of the online scam that may be spread in Maharashtra and in other states, their associates and other details, said a police official.

--IANS

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