E-Paper
Man tricks ATM burglar, captures him inside kiosk
The complainant said a similar incident occurred with his brother Ritendra on March 2 when a burglar managed to swap his debit card and stole ₹28,000 from him. The incident was reported to the police.
The street smarts of a Lucknow man saved him from losing money to an ATM burglar while also leading to the latter’s police arrest.
On Saturday, when Jitendra Srivastava, the complainant, went to an ATM kiosk near Ghazipur police station in Indira Nagar’s B-block, he saw a man trying to tamper with the machine there. Alert, he downed the kiosk’s shutter, capturing the burglar inside, and called the police for help immediately. “Without wasting any time, I closed the shutter from outside and informed the police,” the complainant told police.
According to police, when they reached the spot, they first nabbed Amit, 31, who hails from Loni in Ghaziabad. The police made the accused call his partner Saddam, 27, for help. Seeing the police, he managed to flee initially but was caught later.
Jitendra said a similar incident occurred with his brother Ritendra on March 2 when a burglar managed to swap his debit card and stole ₹28,000 from him. The incident was reported to the police.
Station house officer Vikas Rai said the accused had confessed to committing similar crimes not just in Lucknow but also in Uttarakhand and Delhi. They were also jailed in the past. “A four-wheeler was seized from the spot under Section 207 of the MV Act, along with an expensive phone and some cash,” added the SHO.
48 debit cards recovered
As many as 48 debit cards were recovered from both the accused, police said. “During the interrogation, the accused said they would go inside kiosks immediately after a user left. If the user left his card behind, they would initially steal the card, and swap it before returning it,” said the SHO.
The accused also told police that both of them had come to Lucknow two months ago and were staying in a hotel in Madiaon. While Amit is a class 10th-pass, Saddam dropped out after class 8. They had been working together for the last 10 years.
