Balasore, Aug. 20: Mayurbhanj police arrested four persons, including a business management student, for duping ATM cardholders and withdrawing money from the machines.

Jharpokhari police intercepted the four persons when they were trying to flee in a car after committing a crime at Bisoi. The police seized Rs 83,000 in cash, 16 ATM cards and five cellphones from their possession. The Scorpio vehicle, in which they were travelling, was also impounded. The vehicle carried a registration number of Bihar.

The arrested, belonging to the age group between 22 and 25, are Mithilesh Chaudhary, Manu Kumar, Sasibhusan Kumar and Sudhir Kumar. The police said the criminals had also been involved in a series of crimes in several other districts of Odisha.

“On Sunday, they had duped a woman in Bisoi and managed to withdraw Rs 40,000 from her account using her ATM card. They were on their way to leave the state,” said Santosh Das, sub-divisional police officer, Rairangpur. The gang members used to position themselves inside the ATM counters, and on the pretext of helping customers, they would collect their cards and replace them with duplicate ones.

In the process, the criminals would also elicit information about the customers’ code, and later, use the card to withdraw money, the police said. The police said the lady at Bisoi had withdrawn only Rs 10,000 with the help of the gangsters. Later, she realised that the card she was carrying was a fake one and the criminals had withdrawn Rs 40,000 from her account.