Cuttack, Nov. 27: Police have arrested a member of an inter-state ATM fraud gang operating from Jharkhand.

The accused, Sukdeb Mandal, 23, of Jamtara in Jharkhand was today brought to Cuttack on a three-day transit remand after he had been produced at SDJM Jamtara yesterday. Addressing a news conference, police commissioner R.P. Sharma said seven mobile phones, SIM cards and cash worth Rs 17,000 had been recovered from Mandal’s possession.

He was arrested in connection with an ATM debit card fraud case lodged with Bidanasi police in October.

On October 16, the gang fraudulently made unauthorised online transactions worth Rs 49,800 from the account of one Rajkishore Panda of Mission Road.

“The accused, posing as a bank official, had collected the debit card number, ATM pin and other information over telephone and used them to withdraw money from their accounts through unauthorised online transactions,” said Sharma.

Sharma said the criminals, posing as bank officials, used to trick the customers to gain access of their ATM debit card number and pin number.

The police said the Jharkhand-based gang had also duped a lot of people in other parts of the country, including Maharastra, Chhattisgarh and other states.

“The caller had identified himself as a bank employee, and he had prior information of the transactions of my SBI account. On good faith, I had given him my debit card number. Later, cash started to get debited from my account in quick successions,” said Rajkishore Panda, the victim.