BSF constable helps police nab duo who cheated ATM users

NEW DELHI: A Border Security Force (BSF) constable from Chennai helped the Delhi Police arrest two men who were allegedly involved in several ATM card thefts and misusing the plastic cards for illegal money transactions, police said on Monday.

The BSF constable, S Murugesan who is posted at CGO Complex in Delhi, overpowered the duo at an ATM kiosk in south Delhi’s Tigri, where he had gone to withdraw money on Sunday morning. A police team patrolling the area arrested them when an alarm raised by Murugesan grabbed their attention. A case of cheating was registered at the Sangam Vihar police station on his complaint.

Deputy commissioner of police (South) Vijay Kumar said the arrested men,identified only by their single names, are Aniket,23, and Gulshan,22, both residents of Sangam Vihar. Seven ATM cards and ₹10,000 that the duo had illegally withdrawn from Murugesan’s account after tampering with the buttons of the ATM machine, he said.

Murugesan in his complaint told police that around 9.30 am he had gone to the ATM outlet and found a man inside. Another man was waiting outside on a motorcycle. “I went inside and saw the man pressing the buttons of the machine. I told him I was in a hurry and wanted to withdraw cash. I put my ATM card in the machine to withdraw ₹4,000 but could not get it as the machine’s ‘Yes’ option was not working,” he said in his complaint.

The complainant alleged that before his transaction could be completed, the man standing there inserted his ATM card in the machine. Murugesan became suspicious and stood outside. As the man withdrew ₹10,000 from the ATM, Murugesan received an alert message from the bank that said ₹10,000 was deducted from his account, said a police officer associated with the case.

“The man rushed out and tried to flee with his friend on their bike. Murugesan caught hold of him. The two lost balance and fell off the bike. He raised an alarm and a police team passing by immediately responded and caught the duo,” said the officer.

During the interrogation, the officer said, Aniket disclosed that when Murugesan was withdrawing money, he put his hand on the ATM machine and pressed a button because of which the transaction got delayed.

“As Murugesan left, Aniket changed the transaction amount and withdrew ₹10,000 from the machine,” said the officer.

“The two revealed that they also used to change ATM cards of elderly people by offering to help in using ATM machines and replaced the cards with that of the same bank. We are interrogating them to check their past record,” added the officer.