The Division number 1 police on Tuesday arrested a man for allegedly stealing money from the bank account of a woman after swapping her debit card.
The accused has been identified as Rohit Sama of Vijay Inder Nagar, Jain Colony of Daba, while one of his aides is yet to be arrested. The police have recovered ₹2,000 and a debit card from his possession.
Inspector Sanjiv Kapoor, SHO at police station Division number 1, stated that the accused had stolen cash from the bank account of a woman Jaspal Kaur, 40, of Peer Colony at Kakowal road. The woman made a complaint that she went to Punjab National Bank ATM at Mata Rani Chowk to withdraw cash from her bank account on May 18. She was facing a problem in the transaction and two persons, who were already present there, offered to help her.
The accused had swapped her debit card with another card and later stole ₹11,500 from her account, the police official said.
The SHO added that a case under section 420, 379 and 34 of the IPC was lodged against the accused. On Tuesday, the police arrested one of the accused.
The inspector said that the accused targeted ATM kiosks without security guards. He would then lurk around for customers and target the elderly or labourers. On the pretext of helping them to withdraw cash from the ATM, he would swap their debit cards with a fake one, and later steal cash from their bank accounts using the valid card.
To avoid being caught, the accused would keep changing his area of operation after swindling a few customers, he said.