Thiruvananthapuram: The Thiruvananthapuram city police have issued a look-out notice for three Romanian nationals who are suspected to have stolen around Rs 4.5 lakh from over 25 victims after rigging an ATM counter close to the state police headquarters at Althara junction in the city.
The suspects have been identified as Christian Victor Constantine, 26, Gabriel Marian Ilie, 27, and Bogdean Floriam Floreci, 25, all hailing from Craiova city of Romania.
Their identity came to light after the staffers of a five-star hotel at Kovalam recognised them through the CCTV footage of the ATM thieves that was released by the police through television channels on Tuesday morning.
Further, their identity was confirmed using the whereabouts in mandatory forms available at four hotels at Thampanoor, power house road, Housing Board and Kovalam where they stayed. Two gearless scooters they had hired to go around the city were seized.
The state police have contacted their Maharashtra counterparts and a probe team headed by IG Manoj Abraham has left for South Mumbai. As per sources, the suspects are likely to be arrested as there are few chances of them going out of the country.
Database hacked
Meanwhile, experts suspect that the gang has hacked into the database of the bank. CCTV images revealed that skimmers were not placed over ATM card slots to capture card data. Money was siphoned off just by installing a wireless camera over the ATM counters to get ATM pin numbers entered by the victims.
“On Tuesday morning, we again searched the ATM counter that was sealed the previous day. We found another device that probably pried on the communication between the bank and the device. We are figuring out the technology used,” said an official.
