Inter-state ATM theft gang busted in Odisha

Bhubaneswar, March 26 : Odisha Police on Sunday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of ATM looters, with the arrest of a main accused from Uttarakhand.

The Commissionerate Police arrested gang leader Ajay Choudhury, a resident of Uttarakhand, for looting around Rs 50 lakh from five ATM machines in Puri, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, Director General of Police (DGP) K.B. Singh told media persons.

The DGP said police were undertaking raids in different parts of the country to arrest the other members of the ATM looters' gang.

The police have seized one Apple laptop, a hard disk and three mobile phones from Choudhury's possession. Besides, six bank accounts having Rs 8 lakh in deposits and one bank locker were also frozen by the Commissionerate Police.

Singh said the robbers didn't use mobile phones while committing the crime.

"The thieves, in this case, didn't use mobile phones as they were communicating through an app. The culprits were using a Chinese malware for the purpose. They first install it into the system through the USB port and then they reboot it," the DGP added.

Notably, Choudhury was jailed in 2014 in an ATM skimming case. Besides, he was allegedly involved in a similar kind of offence in Lucknow last year.