Kolkata ATM fraud: Kingpin arrested from India-Nepal border
Kolkata/Uttar Pradesh, Aug 8 (IBNS): Kingpin of an ATM fraud racket, which recently targeted Kolkata bank customers and fraudulently withdrew money from their savings accounts, was nabbed by the Customs department from Sonauli area in Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, reports said on Wednesday.
According to reports, the kingpin, who has been identified as Nana, was arrested from Sonauli near India-Nepal border while he was trying to flee to Nepal.
A team of Kolkata Police, which is currently probing the ATM fraud case, is on its way to Sonauli to interrogate Nana and to take him in its own custody for further investigation, sources said.
A city police official said that Nana used to operate the ATM fraudsters' gang from Delhi and a lookout notice had already been issued against him.
Meanwhile, city police's investigators on Wednesday interrogated one of the main accused in the case, Romanian national Cornel Traian Mirea (33), at Tihar Central Jail in New Delhi.
"We quizzed Romanian passport holder Cornel Traian Mirea, who used to instruct the ATM fraudsters from Tihar jail, on Wednesday and recorded his statement," a STF official told IBNS.
"We have come to know about few others, including a Nigerian, involved in the racket and we are looking for them," the official added.
In May, Cornel was arrested by Delhi Police from New Delhi in connection with an ATM fraud case and he is in judicial custody at Tihar jail.
Earlier on Tuesday late night, Kolkata Police arrested three youths, including two Mumbaikars and a resident of Uttar Pradesh, for trying to install skimming device and micro spy-camera on an ATM machine of a private sector bank at Elgin Road in south part of the city.
Since July 30, at least 78 complaints of fraudulently withdrawal were registered with several police stations in Kolkata and city police's Anti Bank Fraud section.
City police said that around 18-20 lakh rupees of at least 78 Kolkata bank customers were fraudulently debited from few Delhi ATMs.
After beginning probe into the case, Kolkata Police had formed a SIT and deputed a team of senior investigators to Delhi to bust the fraudsters' gang while investigators identified few ATM booths across the city from where bank customers' ATM cards were skimmed and their data were hacked.
Two Romanian nations, Dumitru Calin and Oprea Ovidiu Simion, were arrested by Kolkata Police's SIT on Aug 3 late evening from south-west Delhi's Munrika area for their direct involvement in the fraud.
Meanwhile, after Punjab National Bank (PNB)'s Mullick Bazar branch, officials of Canara Bank's Gariahat branch on Tuesday claimed that they had completed the refund process to the accounts of their victim customers.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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