Kolkata ATM fraud: Two more Romanian nationals held from Indore
Kolkata, Aug 9 (IBNS): The total number of arrests in the recently busted ATM fraud racket that targeted a large number of Kolkata bank customers mounted to eight as the Kolkata Police nabbed two more Romanian nationals from Indore in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, officials said.
According to reports, two Romanian passport holders, who have been identified as Adrian Liview and Cornel Constantian, were arrested by city police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) from Indore.
Earlier on Wednesday, a kingpin of the racket, Aicko Arel alias Nana, was held by Customs department from Sonauli in Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh near India-Nepal border when he was reportedly trying to sneak into neighbouring country Nepal.
A team from Kolkata Police have reached Sonauli to take the custody of Nana, according to officials.
"Our process is in progress to manage transit remands of Nana and two other Romanian nationals, who have been arrested from Indore, and to bring them to Kolkata from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh respectively," a city police official told IBNS.
After interrogating another mastermind of the fraudsters' gang- Romanian national Cornel Traian Mirea (33), who was arrested in May by Delhi Police from New Delhi in connection with an ATM fraud case and is currently in judicial custody, Kolkata Police on Wednesday issued a lookout notice against few suspects.
"We are looking for another Romanian passport holder- Chris, who is named in the lookout notice, as his involvement in the ATM fraud has been found," a senior police official told IBNS.
Earlier on Tuesday late night, city police nabbed three youths, including two Mumbaikars and a resident of Uttar Pradesh, for trying to install skimming device and micro spy-camera on an ATM machine of a private sector bank in south Kolkata's Elgin Road.
Since July 30, at least 78 complaints of fraudulently withdrawal were registered with several police stations in Kolkata and city police's Anti Bank Fraud section.
City police said that more than 20 lakh rupees of at least 78 Kolkata bank customers were fraudulently debited from few Delhi ATMs.
After beginning probe into the case, the Kolkata Police had formed a SIT and deputed a team of senior investigators to Delhi to bust the fraudsters' gang while investigators identified few ATM booths across the city from where bank customers' ATM cards were skimmed and their data were hacked.
Two Romanian nations, Dumitru Calin and Oprea Ovidiu Simion, were arrested by Kolkata Police's SIT on Aug 3 late evening from south-west Delhi's Munrika area for their direct involvement in the fraud.
Meanwhile, officials of Punjab National Bank (PNB)'s Mullick Bazar branch and Gariahat branch of Canara Bank have claimed that they had completed the refund process to the accounts of their victim customers.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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