Kidderpore: A middle-aged man visiting an ATM near his home had his debit card swapped and Rs 1.65 lakh stolen by a stranger who had offered to help him operate the machine.

Police tracked down the accused, 37-year-old Vinod Kumar Shaw, by following the trail of shops from which he purchased merchandise ranging from shoes to liquor with someone else's money.

Vinod had targeted Umesh Roy, a resident of Karl Marx Sarani in Watgunge, when he walked into an ATM next to his home on November 19. Roy, who is 50, told the police that the accused volunteered to help him withdraw cash after noticing him fumbling while operating the teller machine.

"The man was polite and soft-spoken. Without an iota of suspicion, he handed over his card to the stranger and revealed his four-digit PIN. The man inserted the card in the machine, but deliberately punched the wrong PIN. When the screen displayed an invalid transaction, he convinced Roy that there was some technical error that needed to be sorted out with the bank," an officer at Watgunge police station said.

The next day, Roy visited his bank to find out why he could not withdraw cash from his account. A bank statement revealed that someone had withdrawn Rs 1 lakh from his account at two ATMs in Howrah and spent another Rs 65,000 in shops.

Sources said the police collected footage from the shops whose names appeared on the statement and two ATMs in Howrah from where Vinod had withdrawn cash.

"He was in front of a marble store on Kona Expressway when we found him. He tried to flee but was nabbed after a 500-metre chase through some crowded lanes," said Syed Waquar Raza, deputy commissioner of police (port).

A search of Vinod's home on PK Banerjee Road in Howrah yielded Rs 82,200 in cash. The police said Vinod had at least 13 cases against his name, including of ATM theft.