Cops Bust Attention Diversion Gang, Four Arrested

Hyderabad: Special teams from Mehdipatnam police on Saturday busted an interstate attention diversion gang specialising in ATM frauds with the arrest of four offenders. Officials recovered Rs.52,000 cash, 89 ATM cards belonging to different banks, three mobile phones, and an autorickshaw used in the crime.

The arrested have been identified as Aamir Suhail alias Sohail, 24, a lorry driver, Mubarik, 26, a chicken seller, and Mustakeem, 25, all natives of Palwal district in Haryana. Fourth accused Md Amerm 33, an autorickshaw driver from Moinabad and a native of Uttar Pradesh, acted as transport provider, G. Chandra Mohan, DCP, South West Zone, said.

The case came to light on December 28 after A. Venkatesh, an electrician from Asifnagar lodged a complaint with Mehdipatnam police, Chandra Mohan, said.

Venkatesh visited an ATM kiosk at Mallepally to check his mother’s account balance, being semi-literate, he sought help from two men, who were inside the kiosk.

The duo cleverly swapped his card after noting his PIN and returned a dummy card. Shortly after, Venkatesh received SMS alerts regarding Rs.40,000 unauthorized withdrawal, the DCP, added.

The modus operandi of the arrested persons was to target elderly and illiterate individuals at ATM kiosks. “Under the pretext of helping them checking their balance or withdraw of cash, they would surreptitiously swap a victim’s card with a defunct one from their collection after memorising its PIN,” he said.

Acting on a tip-off that the gang was lurking around an ATM at Maruti Vilas in Vijaynagar Colony to commit offence, the police teams led by detective inspector (DI) N. Ram Babu and DSI S. Sai Kiran arrested the accused, DCP, said.

“While checking Aamir’s previous criminal history from SCRB, we found the accused was a habitual offender involved in four previous cases in Moinabad, with two non-bailable warrants (NBWs) pending against him,” he said.

His associate Mubarik had a criminal history involving automobile theft in Haryana. Police officials advised public not to hand over their ATM cards or disclose PINs to strangers.

The accused were booked under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sent to judicial remand.