TURA:
In a shocking case, West Garo Hills police have arrested a postmaster and his aide from Assam who have been tampering with dozens of ATM cards dispatched by post to customers and using the same to withdraw money from ATMs.
This ongoing theft of people’s money from their accounts was busted on Saturday afternoon by police from Phulbari police station in West Garo Hills.
Superintendent of Police, Vivekanand Singh Rathore revealed that his force had received credible information on Saturday that a lone individual had been visiting the ATM kiosk multiple times to withdraw cash using a series of ATM cards.
“Our team from Phulbari police station responded and apprehended the person identified as Lotiful Islam of South Salmara, Assam and recovered a huge number of ATM cards that were meant for customers and had been dispatched by post,” informed SP Rathore.
44 HDFC ATM cards, 1 IPPB ATM card, 1 SBI ATM card, 44 opened HDFC ATM envelopes, 1 passbook each of SBI and IPPB, 2 mobile phones, a scooty and cash totalling Rs 10,290 were recovered from the accused.
During enquiry police found that the arrested man was hired to work by the Assistant Branch Post Master of Tumni Post Office, South Salamara, Assam named Ashraful Islam.
The accused postmaster turned up at Phulbari police station the same day and confessed that he had deputed the arrested Lotiful Islam to work for him, illegally. He was also placed under arrest.
The modus operandi of the arrested duo was to open the ATM card envelopes of the customers illegally without any authority and withdraw money using the PIN that is inscribed inside the letter. A case has been registered and police have seized all the items recovered from the scene of the crime.