Bhubaneswar, Oct. 2: Two engineering students from Baragada were arrested today for stealing money from ATM users’ accounts by manipulating ATM machines.

The police also seized cash worth Rs 11,000, one laptop and four mobile phones from the accused.

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Nitinjeet Singh, said the accused were arrested while loitering near an ATM counter. They were involved in several ATM counter theft cases in the city in the past few months.

Police said the two were identified as Umashankar Sinha and Rajib Ranjan. Both are 22 years old and hail from Bhura area under Wazirganj police station in Bihar. While Umashankar is an engineering graduate, Rajib is doing his diploma in plastic engineering in the city.

The DCP said that the duo used to loiter around the ATM counters in the city.

“They used to keep some material under the buttons of the ATM machines. This made the buttons dysfunctional. When customers came and after inserting the card found that the machine was not working, they would leave the counter.

“Within few seconds the duo would come and remove the material. One of them would see the secret password of the customer. They then managed to withdraw money from the ATM machine,” said Singh. In September, they had committed thefts in as many as seven ATM counters in different parts of the city. The police said that they were targeting the State Bank of India (SBI) ATM counters as there was no security guard deployed unlike ATM counters of other banks.

A senior police officer said that the duo used to target ATM counters at secluded areas, where very few people came. The officer said they had even informed the bank authorities to provide security guards at vulnerable counters, but they did not pay any heed to the request of the law enforcers.

“Our patrolling vans have been keeping an eye on such counters. But it is not always possible to guard all counters and these goons take advantage of such situations,” said the officer, adding that the ATM users must be wary of such activities and not enter counters in groups.

“They should tell those who are inside the counter before them to go out and then use the machine,” he added.