A man who had gone to deposit money in his account through an ATM was cheated by another man who, on the pretext of helping the customer update his KYC, used the PIN to withdraw Rs 1 lakh.
The accused, Soubir Banerjee, was arrested on Saturday night, three days after the fraud was reported.
“He was involved in at least one more incident of cheating a person at an ATM kiosk,” said an officer.
Sudip Roy had gone to the ATM of a private bank at the crossing of Rashbehari Avenue and SP Mukherjee Road in south Kolkata to deposit money on Thursday.
“As he stepped out of the kiosk, a man approached him asking whether he had updated his KYC before depositing money. The stranger said he had deposited Rs 1 lakh in his account through an ATM the previous day but a fee of Rs 1,000 was deducted as his KYC was not updated,” said an officer of Tollygunge police station. Roy believed the man and agreed to take his help to update the KYC. Both entered the kiosk, where Roy used his PIN to access the account, the police said.
“Banerjee spied the PIN. He then convinced Roy that his KYC was already updated and while talking, swapped the customer’s ATM card with another one of the same bank,” said an officer.
Around 10 minutes after he reached home, Roy received a text message alerting him that Rs 1 lakh had been withdrawn from his account.
Roy rushed back to the ATM but Banerjee was nowhere around. He enquired at a spectacle shop adjoining the ATM. “The owner of the shop said a man who resembled the one whose description Roy had just provided had bought a pair of glasses from the store a few minutes before,” said an officer. Roy lodged a complaint with Tollygunge police station, following which officers collected CCTV footage from the shop. The police said Banerjee, who lived on Janak Road near Lake Market before shifting to South 24-Parganas’ Bishnupur, was tracked down in an effort led by the additional officer-in-charge of Tollygunge police station, Bodhisattwa Pramanik.
