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Two booked for cloning Panchkula man’s ATM card, ₹1 lakh withdrawn in two days
Police said as per the complainant, he received messages on his mobile phone on November 25, mentioning five different transactions of ₹10,000 each from an ATM in Bahadurgarh in Jhajjar, Haryana
Two gas agency workers were booked here on Friday for allegedly cloning an ATM card of a 38-year-old man and withdrawing ₹1 lakh from his bank account. Complainant Kishan Singh Parihar, a resident of Vasudevpura in Pinjore, told the police that he worked at a private finance company in Delhi and has a bank account in Gurugram.
He told the police he had an ATM card of his bank account and, on November 25 and November 30, several transactions were made through the card and an amount of ₹1 lakh was withdrawn. Police said as per the complainant, he received messages on his mobile phone on the night of November 25, mentioning five different transactions of ₹10,000 each from an ATM in Bahadurgarh in Jhajjar, Haryana.
“My ATM card was with me, but ₹50,000 through different transactions were withdrawn from an ATM. Later, I submitted a complaint online and got my card blocked,” said Parihar.
He told the police that despite getting the ATM card blocked, cash amounting to ₹50,000 was withdrawn again from his account using the card at an ATM in Abdulapur village in Pinjore on the intervening night of November 29 and 30.
Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Devi Dayal, investigating official in the case, said the complainant approached the bank branch in Pinjore and was told that his ATM card was reportedly cloned. The complainant alleged that he had last used his ATM card for payment of a gas cylinder.
Police said the complainant alleged that, on November 17, two men from a gas agency had visited his house to deliver a cylinder and one of them was calling the other by the name of Pankaj. They reportedly had two ATM swipe machines and Pankaj swiped the complainant’s ATM card in both the machines. The complainant also visited the gas agency, where he was told that recently similar incidents had also taken place with a woman resident of Pinjore and a few others.
“As per the initial probe, the workers of the gas agency have been suspected of cloning the ATM card of the complainant and made transactions from it. The accused are yet to be traced. However, we have initiated further investigation and a cyber cell team is also working to ascertain more facts in the matter,” said the ASI.
A case was registered against one Pankaj and an unidentified man, under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code at the Pinjore police station.
