Maharashtra: Police solve 16 cases after interstate gang targeting citizens at ATMs

The Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police in Maharashtra have detected 16 cases with the arrest of four persons who distracted people at ATM centres and stole their money, an official said.

The MBVV police have recovered a car, cash and mobile phones worth Rs 5.28 lakh from the interstate gang apart from seizing 94 ATM cards, said Suhas Bavche, deputy commissioner of police-zone II, Virar. 

The arrests came on the complainant of a man who was targeted at an ATM near Santosh Bhuvan in Nalasopara, on the outskirts of Mumbai, on December 9 last year. The man told the police that four persons kept him engrossed in talks, replaced his ATM card with a fake one and withdrew Rs 40,000 from his account, said the official.

Working on surveillance camera footage and other leads, the Pelhar police in Palghar district found that the four are from Ulhasnagar near Mumbai, but they had gone into hiding. The gang members changed their mobile numbers and moved to Daman, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh to evade police, he said.

The police identified them as Vicky Salve (32), Vicky Wankhede (22), Anil Veldode (29), and Vaibhav Mahadik (34).