Hazaribagh police have nabbed the leader of an inter-state gang of ATM frauds near Government Bus Depot with the help of a conscious customer and alert citizens.
The leader of the gang identified as Awadh Bihari Singh of Gaya, Bihar, wounded the customer while trying to escape from the spot but the bodyguard of local MlA Manish Jaiswal and local BJP workers foiled his attempt.
Three members of the gang who were with their gang leader managed to escape but the police has seized a white colored Scorpio with number BR 02X 9604 and `20000 cash from the criminal withdrawn from customer Ramkishore Sao’s account. The customer has been admitted in local Sadar Hospital for treatment.
Ramkishore Sao, a resident of Katkamsandi block of Hazaribagh, went in the SBI ATM situated in front of Sky lok Hotel to withdraw some amount. A Scorpio was parked there and three men were waiting outside the ATM while one was inside. Since there are three machines in that ATM so Sao entered and started operating on machine no. 2. When he entered his password and amount suddenly the man who was standing on machine no. 1 told him to shift to machine no. 3 as according to him the machine was not working. When Sao denied then he forcibly pressed some keys of machine 2 and forced him to leave the spot.
Sao was in hurry so he came out of that ATM and went to another ATM which was just a yard away from the first ATM and withdrew `20000 in two installments of `10000 each. Messages of his withdrawal came on his mobile and then he started walking away from there. In the meantime another message of withdrawal of `20000 came on his mobile. He understood everything and ran towards the SBI ATM. While going towards SBI ATM he rang Kishori Rana, MlA Representative of Katkamsandi block, about the incident. The criminals were still there and when Sao started making noise alert citizens also gathered there. The criminals tried to escape but Sao captured the gang leader Awadh Bihari Singh who was inside the ATM with him.
Within minutes bodyguard of MlA Manish Jaiswal and BJP workers reached there and informed police. Police came and arrested the culprit. Since the gang-leader was well-dressed so initially some people tried to solve the matter but when police recovered `20000 from him everything became clear. When SP Akhilesh Jha, DSP Chandan Kumar Vats, OIC Sadar PS Jeetendra Kumar Singh and OIC Bada Bazar Rama Shankar Mishra interrogated the nabbed criminal it became clear that he is the gang leader of ATM frauds which has looted more than `1 crore during last some months from different districts of Jharkhand and Bihar.
The modus operandi of the gang was to use those ATMs having more than one machine. They used to fix the continue button of the machine with the help of pin or Fevi Quick of other machine after engaging him in verbal argument. Other members of this gang also belong to Gaya district of Bihar and now police has started search operation of those members. Meanwhile the seized Scorpio has also been found stolen from some area of Bihar.