ATM Robbery gang caught in Namakkal are from Palwal in Haryana  

Members of an ATM robbery gang, which was nabbed by the Namakkal district police near Komarapalayam on Friday, hailed from the Palwal district on the Rajasthan-Haryana border region, police investigation has revealed.

Coordination between the police personnel of Kerala and Tamil Nadu led to the arrest of the gang. The Tamil Nadu police were involved in a chase before arresting the gang members. One person from the group was gunned down by the police and another was injured when they tried to flee to their native State in a container lorry, with the cash looted from three ATMs in Kerala.

Director-General of Police Shankar Jiwal told The Hindu, “ There is a greater coordination between neighbouring states. When our counterparts in Kerala identified that they were moving in a container truck, they immediately disseminated it [the information] through a formal [channel], apart from the informal channel through WhatsApp. Immediately it got transmitted to the concerned SP. In other places, we established vehicle check-points and alerted the duty police. Somehow, the suspects managed to arrive before that. The moment they entered the check-post, the entire incident unfolded.” 

He further said, “Our investigation revealed that the gang had been involved in repeated similar offences. Most of them are from Palwal district in Haryana. We are tallying all cases for proper investigation and a special team has been formed. They will continue the probe...”

The deceased was identified as Jumanddin, 37, of Haryana’s Palwal district and the injured, Mohammad Azru alias Azar Ali, 30, from Bisru Village in the State’s Mewat district. The other arrested persons are Irfan, 32, from Dwaraka Puri; Sowkeen Khan, 23, from Mallai; Sabeer, 26, from Kudavali; Mubarak, 18, from Lacknakar; and Muhammed Ikram, 42, from Bisru.

The probe revealed that the gang had initially reached Chennai, and hatched the plan in the city before executing it at Thrissur.

Their targets were only “vulnerable ATMs” of nationalised banks. “The arrested suspects are being questioned about their involvement in other ATM burglary cases in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring States. Our counterparts in Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are investigating. The authorities in Haryana have also been notified...,” Namakkal Superintendent of Police S. Rajesh Kannan told The Hindu.

According to the police, gangs hailing from Mewat had been involved in ATM thefts at many places in the State in 2021 and 2023, and had been subsequently nabbed. In 2021, the Chennai police identified 38 persons who were allegedly involved in “novel thefts” at ATMs in Chennai, Puducherry, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi, and Mumbai. Between June 15 and June 18, they stole over ₹5 crore from ATMs of the State Bank of India at 16 places in Chennai. Subsequently, the bank lodged complaints with the police, who then traced one of the accused, Amir Arsh, 25, with the help of the Haryana police. Subsequently, other gang members were caught.

The suspects knew the technical flaw in the machines and targeted such vulnerable machines. They used genuine debit and credit cards to steal the money from the ATMs with the cash deposit facilities. After inserting a card in the ATM, the machine dispensed cash, and it was taken away by fraudsters after blocking the sensor signal for a few seconds. But the ATM’s software would register it as a failed transaction. As a result, the cash was drained from the ATM but the relevant account was not debited. The same technique was repeated in all ATMs having deposit facilities, said the police.

They used a similar modus operandi and had withdrawn nearly over ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh in one hour, late in the night. The accused had used same ATM deposit machines to deposit the looted money. They would then transfer the amount through digital wallet to different accounts, said a senior officer. 

In 2023, another gang from Mewat was involved in thefts at a series of ATMs in Tiruvannamalai. The main accused, J. Asif Javed from Nuh, was arrested. “We see a similar pattern in these cases,” an official said.

Published - September 29, 2024 01:01 am IST