A BSc (IT) graduate was among two people arrested for allegedly stealing ₹9.39 lakh from Punjab and Sindh Bank (PSB)’s automated teller machine (ATM) near Rigo bridge on August 10, police said on Sunday.
The accused were identified as Deepak Gill (35) and Samsher Singh aka Shera of Guru Amardass Avenue in Amritsar.
Police said Deepak Gill is a graduate in BSc (IT) from Sikkim University and he had been stealing money from ATMs in the holy city with the help of Samsher Singh. Deepak is also a former employee of Advance Graphics System (AGS) company which repairs technical glitches in ATMs, police say.
On August 10, some unidentified miscreants had decamped with ₹9.39 lakh after hacking the ATM of PSB. Police had said the miscreants looted the cash after hacking password of the ATM. A case under sections 454 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) and 380 (theft in dwelling house) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered in this regard at Gate Hakima police station on the complaint of the bank manager, Pawan Sharma.
Addressing a press conference at Civil Lines here on Sunday, commissioner of police (CP), Amritsar, SS Srivastva, said, “For tracing the ATM stealing and hacking case, a team under the supervision of deputy commissioner of police (DCP-Investigation) Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar was formed. The team, during its investigation, found that the duo accused had committed the theft. The duo was arrested from their home and ₹4.20 lakh stolen money, a motorcycle, a scooter and a car were also seized from their possession.”
{{/usCountry}}Addressing a press conference at Civil Lines here on Sunday, commissioner of police (CP), Amritsar, SS Srivastva, said, “For tracing the ATM stealing and hacking case, a team under the supervision of deputy commissioner of police (DCP-Investigation) Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar was formed. The team, during its investigation, found that the duo accused had committed the theft. The duo was arrested from their home and ₹4.20 lakh stolen money, a motorcycle, a scooter and a car were also seized from their possession.”
{{/usCountry}}The CP said, “The accused told us that before stealing money from the ATM, they did a recce and came to know that the ATM was filled with cash on every Saturday.”
He said, “During the investigation, we also came to know that the duo accused had stolen ₹9.45 lakh by hacking Union Bank of India (UBOI)’s ATM at Majith Mandi in May.”
MODUS OPERANDI
The CP said one of the accused Deepak Gill was sacked by AGS company around a year ago. “However, the company did not inform the banks about the ouster of Deepak. Taking advantage of this, the accused continued to make contacts with bank employees in Amritsar. Whenever any technical glitch occurred in any ATM, Deepak was called by the concerned bank employees to fix the problem. While repairing ATMs, Deepak used to hack their passwords. By using these passwords, he had been stealing money from the ATMs.”
According to the CP, Deepak recently also hacked the password of an ATM on Airport road here. “He was planning to steal money from this ATM, but we nabbed him before he could make his move.”
The police commissioner said the duo accused will be presented before a local court on Monday and their police remand will be requested. “During the remand more confessions and recoveries are expected,” he added.