Ludhiana Police bust ATM robbers' gang

Ludhiana (Punjab) [India], August 20 (ANI): The Ludhiana Police on Sunday with the help of the Special Task Force (STF), Punjab arrested a five-member ATM robbers' gang and recovered 641 ATM cards of 18 nationalised and private banks from them.

The police have also recovered Rs. 3 lakh in cash, three cars, nearly 300 passbooks and cheque-books, and press cards from two members of the arrested gang.

Giving the details of the fraud, the police said the gang has been operating since 2015 and they had withdrawn about Rs. 1 crore from the ATMs since then.

R.N. Dhoke, the Commissioner of Police (CP) Ludhiana, said, "Their method of fraud was they used to make their known ones to open accounts and took their ATM cards. They then used to credit the accounts and withdraw money from Mumbai and Bangalore. While the transactions were under process, they used to turn off the ATM machines to make the transaction invalid and then ask the customer care to recuperate the money."

The arrested five men are from Ludhiana and the two masterminds have been identified as Pankaj and Aggarwal.

The police is investigating the matter further in collaboration with the banks and is consulting the bank managers to locate the loopholes. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI