The Bandra Kurla Complex police recently registered an FIR against unidentified individuals after a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer was cheated of ₹80,118. According to the complainant and the police, the accused are possibly members of an inter-state card-cloning gang and stole the money by cloning the officer’s debit card. According to the police, the officer is posted at the CBI’s zonal office in BKC.

“The accused withdrew the money between May 1 and May 4 through nine transactions from my account. Since my card was with me, I believe all these unauthorised withdrawals were done using a cloned card at four ATMs in Chennai,” the CBI officer told HT.

“I use two cell phones and the phone number which is registered with my bank account was switched off on two of the days during which the crime occurred, as I do not use that number often. On May 4, when I switched it on, I received nine alerts about the transactions. I immediately informed my bank,” the officer said.

The complainant claimed he suspects a professional card-cloning gang may have stolen his card’s data from a point-of-sale (POS) device in Mumbai and after cloning it, withdrew the money in Chennai.

The police confirmed that the money was stolen using a cloned debit card.

“The accused has withdrawn money in Chennai. We have registered an offence an are investigating it further,” said Kalpana Gadekar, senior inspector of BKC police station.

BKC police on Saturday lodged an FIR under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology Act against an unidentified suspect and are further probing the matter.

The police have sought details of the unauthorised transactions from the bank in order to identify the suspects.

First Published: May 10, 2019 02:33 IST