Bhubaneswar, March 26: Police today arrested a 26-year-old youth from Uttarakhand for allegedly stealing Rs 50 lah in cash from various ATM counters in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri without even breaking the ATM machine.

This is a first-of-its-kind case of cyber crime in the state and is also an eye-opener for ATM operators. Several ATMs use Window XP operating systems, which is vulnerable to such kind of hacking.

The cops said that the accused, Ajay Choudhury, who used to work as a rickshaw puller in Delhi just a few years ago, is a member of the gang that hacked ATM machines using malware, which a software designed to gain access to a computer system.

The police said the gang, which has four members, is involved in five such cases that took place in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri in February and March.

The police also said that the gang had made several unsuccessful attempts to hack two other ATMs in Cuttack and one in Bhubaneswar.

Elaborating on the modus operandi, director general of police K.B. Singh said the gang had procured and was using a Chinese malware to gain access to the software of the ATM machine.

"The accused who was arrested today used to visit the ATM counters and open the ATM machine through a duplicate key. Later, they would install the malware through a USB port and reboot the machine. The accused also used to take the screen shot of the ATM and sent it to another gang member to obtain the password. Once the password was entered, the ATM dispensed cash without any card," said Singh adding that three other gang members had already been identified and would be nabbed shortly.

Further investigation by the police revealed that the malware used by the gang self-destructed after 16 hours of being uploaded into the system, making it impossible even for cyber experts of the police force to detect the crime afterwards.

"The gang used to target ATM machines operating on Window XP operating systems, which is vulnerable to hacking. As this was among the latest form of cyber crime, we analysed around 5 million mobile call records to identify the accused," said police commissioner Y.B. Khurania.

He said the police had frozen six bank accounts worth Rs 8 lakh besides freezing a bank locker of the accused.

The police said Choudhury, who is a Class VIII dropout, learnt the hi-tech skill when he lodged in a Bangalore jail in an ATM theft related case in 2014.

"The ATMs where the gang stole money were unguarded and Choudhury was getting 50 per cent of the stolen money. He was also involved in similar crime in Lucknow in 2016. We are further verifying the antecedents of the accused," said an official of the police.

The police said they had asked the bank authorities to upgrade their software to prevent such crimes.

"Of the 6,125 ATM counters in the state, around 1,200 still use the Window XP operating system, which is vulnerable to this kind of hacking," said a police official.