The accused, Asif Khan (19) of Rajasthan and Asmat Khan (21) of Haryana, were caught after the Ngapada police station received information that they were in Mumbai to carry out similar transactions. (Photo for representational purpose)Two college students were arrested on Thursday after they had allegedly duped over 10 banks of Rs 1 crore across the country in a year.
The accused are alleged to have carried out the operation by deliberately stopping cash withdrawals by switching off ATM machines seconds before they dispensed the money, pocketing the cash and later claiming refunds by complaining that money was debited from their accounts in spite of incomplete transactions.
The accused, Asif Khan (19) of Rajasthan and Asmat Khan (21) of Haryana, were caught after the Ngapada police station received information that they were in Mumbai to carry out similar transactions.
Santosh Bagve, senior inspector, Nagpada police station, said the duo had opened several bank accounts in 2018 and deposited a negligible amount of money in each of them.
“They had over 50 debit cards that they used to withdraw cash from ATM machines. They had learnt how to switch off the machines just before the cash was dispensed,” Bagve explained.
The police claimed that the accused would then immediately call the customer care centre of the bank concerned to complain that money was debited from their accounts in spite of the machine not dispensing cash.
“The banks would check their records and only see that the transactions had failed due to machines going offline, and would refund the same amount of money that the accused had already withdrawn,” said Bagve.
