Alert technician helps cop nab member of ATM-theft gang

Mumbai: A 22-year-old man from a three-member gang was arrested recently for allegedly fixing strips at the withdrawal shutters of ATMs, leading to the cash drawn by bank customers stuck inside the machine. According to the police, the gang members would remove the money with the help of the strips after the customer left the kiosk.

The accused has been identified as Subhash Patel. The police have launched a manhunt for the other two accused, identified as Baba Saroj, 30, and Rahul Singh, 28. The three accused are residents of Antop Hill.

According to the police, an alert technician, Abhishek Kumar Singh, working with Alarka Infra Solutions Private Limited – a firm that handles security at various ATM kiosks – helped the police arrest Patel on Thursday. Singh works as a QRT Executive and is responsible for the security of ATM kiosks in Andheri, Dadar and Sion.

“On Thursday, Singh got an alert on his mobile about two people doing some suspicious activities at Kotak Mahindra Bank’s ATM in Sion. He checked the video footage of the kiosk and found that the two people were fixing a strip near the withdrawal shutter,” a senior officer from Sion police station said.

“If such strips are fixed near withdrawal shutters, whenever customers visit the ATM kiosk, the money withdrawn by them gets debited from their bank accounts, but the cash doesn’t come out of the machine because of the strip. Taking it as a malfunction, the customer leaves the kiosk and later approaches his bank and complains about it. As soon as the customer leaves the kiosk, the accused get in, remove the strip and collect his money,” the officer added.

The officer said that Singh informed his manager Suraj Dubey, and another executive from his firm, Rohit Gupta, who reached the spot. “Singh sent Gupta the video of the two suspects and asked him to search for them in the area. Gupta noticed one of them waiting near the Sion Hospital signal and immediately informed Singh and the Sion police. A team of policemen soon reached the spot and nabbed Patel,” the officer said.

The officer added the accused had earlier also fixed such strips in the ATM of Bharat Bank in Dharavi for an hour on August 12.