The city police arrested four members of an ATM robbery gang under Prison Transit Warrant (PT Warrant) while the kingpin, a former employee of an ATM service, is still at large.
Producing the accused before media, DCP Kranti Rana Tata said that the four gang members — Gaurav Singh (27), Abhishek Singh (23), Devendra Singh (26) and Ajamat Khan (24) of Uttar Pradesh — led by Shobhit Kumar who has experience of working for an ATM service company, withdrew ₹72, 000 cash from an ATM of Central Bank of India in Crambay Colony under Bhavanipuram Police Station on July 12.
Modus operandi
Explaining the modus operandi of the gang, Mr. Rana said the gang members target an isolated ATM centre and draw money from the machine using their debit card. “As soon as the money comes out, they open the machine’s panel and switch off the power supply before the machine updates withdrawal information. At the end, the amount in their account will not be debited, but they get the cash in hand,” the DCP said.
The gang from Uttar Pradesh moved to Bengaluru and then Chennai where the members met Shobhit Kumar and hatched plan to loot money from ATMs in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.
After stealing money from the ATM in Vijayawada they moved to Vizag immediately and stole cash from an ATM, police said.
They were arrested under PT Warrant and will be produced before the court, said Mr. Rana adding that the stolen money is yet to be recovered and search is on for the prime accused who is wanted by both Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam police. Police were able to identify the offenders by CCTV footage and media has played an important role in making the faces of the offenders familiar with police of other districts, he said.