Kochi: The Mattancherry police on Wednesday arrested two persons who were attempting to rob from an ATM belonging to The State Bank of India. The arrested persons have been identified as Amin Khan, 42, of Alwar district in Rajasthan, and Riyaju Khan, 27, of Palwal district in Haryana. The incident took place in the morning hours of Wednesday at the SBI ATM center adjoining the Kalvathy branch. On entering the ATM center the accused covered the CCTV camera in the ATM and the image flashed inside the adjoining branch which helped in alerting the bank officials at 8.30 a.m. The bank officials immediately sent the security guards to the ATM center and the police said that the two accused took to their heels on seeing the guards. However, the security guards nabbed the accused as they gave chase with the help of the local public. The persons were found to have withdrawn Rs.10, 000 from their accounts. As the police conducted the initial interrogation, the accused told the police that while they were withdrawing money from their accounts, they would not touch one of the currency notes dispensed by the ATM machine. According to the police the currency note left at the dispenser of the ATM machine, would be taken back by the machine. The accused would then call the bank authorities and lodge a complaint about their account being debited stating that the ATM machine did not dispense the cash. The bank would then refund the entire amount that was sought to be withdrawn, The SBI bank officials told that the above method was no longer possible to implement. The accused confirmed that there was another way to commit the fraud and that is by manipulating the machines when its cash chest was just about to dispense the currency notes, Mr. V.S. Navas, Station House Officer, Mattancherry said. In the above mentioned method the accused would get the cash, as they were able to convince bank officials that the currencies were not dispensed with owing to a system failure. In such cases, the bank will always refund the money. The SBI officials were not available to clarify its possibility. Mr. Navas said that the accused need to be subjected to a detailed interrogation to verify whether the accused had been adopting this second method. Whatever be the scheme they employed, he said their accounts were getting credited with money of late. On June 10, the accused were on the road and on the very next day, they had managed to reach Chennai. Since their arrival in Chennai, the police suspect that they have committed 13 ATM frauds across Tamil Nadu, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. Mr. Navas said that the accused for the past six months had been making their living through illegal means. The police then accompanied the accused to a lodge near the South railway station where they claimed to have been staying. The police said that they will be produced before the court on Thursday. The police registered various Cases according to the Indian Penal Code against the accused. The cases registered are IPC Section 379 (theft), 511 (Punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) and 454 (Lurking house-trespass or house-breaking in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment). ]]>
