Cuttack, April 1: The arrest of a 20-year-old man from Delhi has given police a breakthrough in their probe into the organised looting of ATMs here and in Puri and Bhubaneswar.

The arrested accused, identified as Krishna Gopal, has been linked with investigation into the theft of Rs 17.48 lakh from a Corporation Bank ATM at High Court Square here.

Gopal was an alleged accomplice of Ajay Choudury, 26, who was arrested earlier in connection with the robbery of Rs 10.32 lakh from a Central Bank of India ATM in Bhubaneswar's Airfield area. Both are residents of Delhi.

The cops announced the news of Gopal's arrest from Delhi at a news conference yesterday.

Police commissioner Y.B. Khurania said the gang had robbed five ATMs - one in Cuttack and two each in Bhubaneswar and Puri - in the past two months. They stole the money by hacking into the ATMs' operating system instead of breaking them, as other robbers do.

Investigations revealed that the gang, which had three other members, had stolen around Rs 48.25 lakh from the five ATMs.

"They used a Chinese malware to gain access to the software of the ATMs, which ran on the Windows XP operating system. They targeted ATMs operating on Windows XP as they are vulnerable to hacking," Khurania said.

In all the five cases, the ATMs were opened and the malware uploaded through its USB port. The lack of security in the kiosks gave the gang ample time for the crime.

"As this was among the most recent form of cyber crime, we utilised the services of the scientific team and CCTV footage of the ATMs, which contained recordings of the entire operation. Accordingly, we maintained surveillance on their activities to get to them," Khurania said.

While continuing their efforts to nab the three other absconding members of the robbers' gang, the police also plan to take the two arrested accused on remand "for further interrogation and to get more clues on their modus operandi and involvement of their other associates".

"We have frozen Gopal's savings account, in which he had deposited Rs 1 lakh, which was part of the stolen money. We are also verifying the accounts and lockers of the accused," said Cuttack deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora.

Investigations had revealed that the gang also stole Rs 14.40 lakh from a Central Bank of India ATM at Kharavela Nagar, Rs 39,000 from a Bank of India ATM at Puri town and Rs 5.64 lakh from a UCO Bank ATM at Kumbharpada in Puri.

Khurania said the police had convened a meeting with bankers in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack on March 5 and asked them to upgrade the system used in ATMs as a preventive measure against hacking.

"No such theft through hacking has occurred after that," Khurania claimed at a press conference yesterday.

The cops have also asked the bank authorities to deploy security guards at unmanned ATM kiosks.