A 35-year-old Romanian national, allegedly involved in the hi-tech ATM robbery in Kerala where people lost about Rs 2.5 lakh, has been arrested from Navi Mumbai, a police official said today.
Gabrial Mariam was nabbed from a hotel in Vashi by a team of Kerala Police late last night, with the help of Mumbai Crime Branch, senior Inspector of Vashi Police Station Ajay Kumar Landge told PTI.
Mariam was today produced before a Navi Mumbai court which sent him in transit remand, he added.
After the robbery to light, a case was registered under IPC Section 380 (theft in dwelling house, etc) and under relevant sections of IT Act at Museum Police Station of Thiruvananthapuram.
The arrest came after Kerala Police yesterday zeroed in on three foreign nationals suspected to be the key players behind the ATM robbery, and decided to seek Interpol's help to track them.
The trio, found installing an electronic device inside an ATM kiosk of a public sector bank at Vellayambalam here, had been caught in the CCTV installed there.
According to police, the three foreign nationals were from Romania and had come to India on June 25 and reached Kerala on July 8.The three had come on tourist visas and taken rooms in a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram for two days.
Kerala Police seized from the hotel two scooters and three helmets, suspected to have been used by the trio.
Kerala Police shared their photos and other available details with their counterparts in other states which led to the arrest of one among them, police said.
So far, more than 20 people had lodged complaints, saying money was withdrawn from their accounts in fraudulent way. As per the preliminary assessment, about Rs 2.5 lakh had been lost, police said.
It is suspected that the electronic device at the ATM counter enabled the fraudsters to collect the secret pin code and card details.
Many of the customers who were duped came to know about the fraud after they received a text message on Monday, informing that money was withdrawn from their accounts.
(Reopens BOM18)
In Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Police said they have taken custody of the Romanian national and the decision when he would be brought here for interrogation would be taken later.
DGP Loknath Behara told reporters that whether more persons were involved in the heist cannot be revealed now.
As of now, only one person has been arrested and he was produced before Mumbai court, he said.
The DGP has also written to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to take urgent steps to stregthen the present protocol and SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) of ATMs in Kerala in the backdrop of the incident.
Meanwhile, State Bank of Travancore (SBT) today said it has credited the amounts reported as lost by its account holders arising out of the fraud which happened at SBI's ATM at Althara, Thiruvananthapuram.
The bank had received complaints from 15 people relating to this incident and all of them have been fully compensated, the SBT said in a press release.
The bank has also enhanced physical surveillance of all its ATMs across the State. SBT has also blocked the ATM cards of customers who had transacted at the Althara ATM near about the date of this incident, the release said.
The customers whose cards have been blocked have been informed that new cards will be issued within 10 days.
The bank has also made arrangements for enabling these card holders to transact their business at their nearest branches, when required.
About 200 of SBT's ATMs are already under a centralised electronic surveillance system and the Bank would enlarge the scope of this surveillance to cover all the ATMs after due process, it said.
Kerala Police had yesterday zeroed in on three foreign nationals, who are suspected to be the key players behind the hi-tech ATM robbery, and decided to seek Interpol's help.
