Cuttack, Aug. 20: Three persons have been arrested for making purchases with a debit card they had stolen.

The accused have been identified as Seikh Raimu alias Charan, 21, Sayeed Saibuddin alias Gokul, 19 and Seikh Sehejad, 20 of Roky Lane, Darghabazar, in the city.

Police sources said Saibuddin is a Plus Two second-year student of Christ College while Sehejad is a student of hardware networking.

Saibuddin and Sehejad had purchased luxury items worth Rs 18,000 including a DVD home theatre system with the card that Raimu had stolen from one Nishikant Panda during the premiere show of an Oriya movie at Brundaban Talkies on August 7.

The complainant, Nishikant Panda, who works as an assistant producer with a regional entertainment channel, had registered a complaint regarding the theft of his wallet the same day, said Purighat inspector in-charge Harihar Dora.

However, the complainant later came to know that his stolen ATM card had been swiped and purchases worth thousands had been made with it. Dora said Raimu was a professional pickpocket and he, along with two of his accomplices, had swapped the stolen ATM of Karnataka Bank four times and bought a mobile phone, a home theatre system, an i-pod and other valuables from Big Bazaar.

Senior police officials said that in case of certain ATM cards including those of State Bank of India, it was not possible to swipe them unless the user knew the PIN.

Police sources said the trio were nabbed following a detailed scrutiny of the video footage captured by the complainant’s cameraman during the premiere show and the CCTV footage at Big Bazaar.

The police have also recovered the goods purchased with the stolen ATM card, along with stolen mobile phones worth Rs 30,000 from the accused, who were produced before the court today.