THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police team investigating the ATM scam has stepped up the probe for the fifth person in the racket, while a local court here remanded the Romanian arrested from Mumbai to police custody till August 22. Steps to issue a red corner notice through Interpol for three others who have already left the country was also on. So far the police received complaints from 38 persons from whose bank accounts over Rs 7 lakh was siphoned off by the Romanian racket.
While the police anticipate that more complaints may come up in the coming days, police sources said that some bogus complaints which were not related with this ATM fraud were also coming up. According to police sources, efforts are on to track the fifth member of the gang with the help of the airport immigration wing. Though Romanian Gabriel Marian Ilie had given some information regarding the one who looted cash even after his arrest, the police did not take it at face value.
The police also got information that the gang received the technology for the looting operations from Bulgaria. Police sources said that the gang members only had school education, but Cristian Victor Constantin possessed technical knowhow. He was the one who looted the banking data by encrypting using tools made in Bulgaria. The cards were made using dummy magnetic cards that are available in the market.
According to a report submitted by the police at the local court while seeking Gabriel’s custody, the activity of the accused posed a threat to internal security and the Indian banking system. Various sections of the IPC and the IT Act for theft and forgery were charged against the accused. Meanwhile, three revenue officials in the district siphoned off around Rs 40,000 though online banking cheating. Incidentally, all the three were village officials of rural parts of the district. A caller who posed as a bank official and collected the ATM card number and one-time-password and siphoned off the amount.
Centre taking issue very seriously, says Arun Jaitley
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said that the ATM robbery in the state had highlighted the issues related to the financial security in the country as a whole. “The RBI, the government and the banks have taken it seriously,” Mr Jaitley said in response to Congress MP K.C. Venugopal’s poser. “The technological firewalls to be created around the technology systems of bank is being further strengthened. The banking system is seriously looking into the whole issue and they are fully seized of it because if those systems can be hacked then the entire security of the financial system will get threatened,” he said.
Wait 2-3 days for more info on case, says Loknath Behera
The investigation in connection with the ATM fraud detected in Thiruvananthapuram is an ongoing process and further details can be revealed only on basis of the progress in the probe, Director General of Police Loknath Behera told reporters on Friday. The probe is still on and it would take some time for giving further information, he said. "Wait for 2-3 days more for further information in the case" he said. Mr. Behera made these remarks in the background of information that the fulcrum of the fraud was based in Bulgaria. The DGP added that all information connected with the probe cannot be shared with the media.
