ATM cons who duped 81-yr-old of Rs 3 lakh still at large

More than two months after they used sleight of hand to exploit his failing sight and ageing mind, the police are yet to arrest three men who duped an 81-year-old man of Rs 3 lakh. HT reports. Thugs at work

More than two months after they used sleight of hand to exploit his failing sight and ageing mind, the police are yet to arrest three men who duped an 81-year-old man of Rs 3 lakh.

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Kanwar Singh Rawat, a resident of B-block in Rohini's Sector 18, was targeted by the cons on the morning of March 1 when he went to withdraw money from the local ATM. He was defrauded of almost all his life savings systematically over the next fortnight.

"One of them fooled me into believing there was something wrong with the machine and asked me to give him my debit card so that he could see whether the machine was not functioning or whether there was a problem with the card," Rawat said.

An unsuspecting Rawat handed over his card and allowed one of the men to execute the transaction of Rs 10,000, which were given to him along with a blue ATM card.

When Rawat went to withdraw money from another ATM a month later, the machine told him that the card he was using had expired.

"I found this strange and went to the head branch of my bank at Delhi Gate. Here, I was told that the card that the man had handed me was an expired one belonging to some woman," Rawat said.

"My updated passbook showed that around Rs 3 lakh had been withdrawn from my bank account over the last month and there was nothing left," said Rawat.

The police have registered a case at Samaipur Badli.