A man stands outside an ATM counter in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, May 29: City police last night detained a member of a gang involved in stealing money from ATM booths in the city.

Four other members of the gang, however, managed to escape when a police team raided an ATM counter in the Master Canteen area last night.

Police said the gang members were manipulating the ATM machines before committing their crimes. A police officer said the gang members belonged to Bihar and they used to come to the state capital for committing such crimes.

“After a series of ATM thefts, they flee to other places and return to the city after a gap,” said the officer.

However, the police did not disclose the name of the detained member of the gang.

“As we are looking for other members of the gang and trying to recover stolen money from them, the name of the detained thief is not disclosed,” said the officer.

Around 11.30 last night, Kharavela Nagar police got a tip-off about some youths suspiciously roaming around an ATM booth near Master Canteen. A police patrolling van rushed to the spot. Seeing the police vehicle, the goons started fleeing from the counter. The police gave them a chase and could catch one of them.

In last two months, several cases of money theft from ATM counters were reported with Kharavela Nagar police.

The complainants alleged that after they were inserting the ATM cards in the machine and typing their password, it was showing some errors.

They left the ATM counter after pressing the cancel button. However, they were later informed that money had been withdrawn from their accounts fraudulently.

“We got several complaints about the cash withdrawn fraudulently from the accounts of people. This will amount to around Rs 5 lakh. The thieves are targeting the ATM machines which are frequented by elderly persons who are not well-acquainted with the cash withdrawing process,” said a police officer.

Sukant Patra, who had been victim of an ATM thief gang, said that its members had withdrawn cash worth Rs 10,000 from his account within few minutes after he left the booth near Ekamra Haat last year.

“After I entered my password, it showed some errors. A youth standing near me said that the machine was out of order. I pressed the cancel button and left the counter. Within 15 minutes I got a confirmation to my mobile phone that cash had been withdrawn from my account,” said Patra.

Deputy commissioner of Police (DCP) Nitinjeet Singh had advised ATM users to be careful during transactions. “Those who do not know use of ATM machines should not take risk and must not ask others for assistance. If they find any other person inside the room, they must inform the police or bank authorities,” said Singh. However many people complained that police did not receive their complaints in such cases.

Patra said the Kharavela Nagar police did not lodge a complaint regarding his case.

Three months ago, an IT company employee had been a victim of an ATM thief gang. A thief took away his ATM card from a booth near Jayadev Vihar and later withdrew money using it from another counter at Chandrsekharpur. However neither the Chandrasekharpur nor the Nayapalli police received his complaints. Even the DCP who had assured him of action did not meet him despite the victim’s several efforts.