Haryana Police on Monday claimed to have busted a gang of ATM thieves and arrested four of its four members from Bhuna road in Ratia, Fatehabad. A spokesman of the Police Department said that a police team formed by police station in-charge Ratia, arrested four persons involved in stealing money from ATM machines by cloning the card.

The accused were arrested from near Munshiwali water channel in Ratia when they were sitting in a Swift car without a number plate and hatching a plot for the next loot. Those arrested include Virender, Sanjeev, Prem Kumar, Shamsher and Satish, all residents of Hisar district.

During interrogation by the police, they confessed to committing the crime of ATM theft by cloning the card. They also committed thefts in the neighbouring States of Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They revealed that members of the gang followed a strategy while executing the crime. The arrested members revealed that they mostly targeted ATMs of Punjab National Bank as machines of this bank were mostly unguarded.

The spokesman said that the accused had fraudulently withdrawn Rs1.85 lakh one month ago from ATM at Pundri, Kaithal, Rs29,000 from ATM at Bikaner in Rajasthan six months ago and Rs27,000 from Ayodhya in UP 15 days ago. They also fraudulently withdrew Rs4,000 from Baas village in Narnaund and Rs27,000 from Hansi in February 2015.

ATM frauds executed by them last year included Rs37,000 in January from Punjab National Bank ATM on Jaipur Road, Kishangarh (Ajmer), Rs7,000 from Jaipur in February, and Rs65,000 from Makrana in Rajasthan, Rs20,000 from Banaras (UP) in October, Rs21,000 from ludhiana in November, Rs55,000 from Ratia in November, Rs15,000 from Bihar in December and Rs13,000 from Thurana in Hansi, added the spokesperson.

Haryana Police Department has  announced honour, cash award and appreciation letter to the police officials and employees who collected information about the members of the gang and arrested them.