A day after their arrest by the Calangute police in north coastal Goa, three Delhi ‘gangsters’ were on Thursday charged with skimming ATMs.
The trio, who have been absconding from the national Capital since they allegedly fired at the Delhi Police during a recent nakabandi, were arrested here on Wednesday.
The Calangute police have registered a case under Sections 420, 511 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code, Calangute police station incharge Jivba Dalvi told journalists on Thursday evening.
Mr. Dalvi said the police had received a complaint against ATM skimming from Lekhraj Mashelkar, legal advisor of Hitachi Services. Mr. Mashelkar had alleged that a Yes Bank ATM at Porbowado, Calangute, has been fixed with a skimmer.
CCTV footage
On examination of CCTV footage, the police were surprised to discover that the accused were the same men from Delhi who had been arrested on Wednesday. The Calangute police were given custody of the accused from a local court for further interrogation in the case.
During custodial interrogation, Delhi-based Jharoda Kalan residents Vipin Sunil Dagar (24) and Praveen Surjay Dagar (23), and Ajay Kumar Ahlawat (22) from Haryana’s Jhajjar confessed to tampering with the ATM by fixing a skimmer, Mr. Dalvi said. He added the trio also confessed to skimming an Axis Bank ATM in Panaji.
Explaining the modus operandi, Mr. Dalvi said the accused would fix a bogus card reader — known as a skimmer device — on top of the real reader on ATMs. The device swipes information from credit and debit cards when customers slip their cards into the machines. The skimmer device stores card data using an integrated magnetic stripe reader and has a built-in hidden camera to record PIN numbers.
The police conducted a panchnama under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act and recovered a sports utility vehicle bearing a Haryana numberplate. They recovered IP cameras, two batteries and circuits, allegedly used for setting the skimmer device, from the car. The vehicle has been attached, they added. Delhi Police Sub-Inspector Jasbir Singh, who is camping at Calangute station, told the Goa Police that four similar offences have been registered against the accused at Delhi Cantonment police station.
