Card cloning racket busted; one held

Representational image

A 24-year-old man was arrested from Bihar for allegedly cloning debit and credit cards of customers in Maharashtra's Nashik district by obtaining secret passwords, and withdrawing lakhs from their bank accounts, police have said.

Police seized a cloning machine, Rs three lakh cash, cloned cards, a video camera and a motorcycle from the accused Javed Khan who was hiding in Patna. A court in Nashik on Tuesday remanded him in police custody for 14 days, district Superintendent of Police (Rural) Arati Singh told reporters on Tuesday.

Police have also traced Rs 11.6 lakh in the bank accounts of the accused. Based on a complaint lodged by a local resident of fraudulent money withdrawal, Nashik police registered an FIR and launched an investigation.

After analysing the CCTV footage, the police zeroed in on Khan, the SP said, adding that the accused was tracked down to Patna. Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, the SP said he would stand behind unsuspecting customers entering ATMs and film them secretly using a video camera while they withdraw money.

The accused would then use the video information to make duplicate cards, the SP said, adding that the cloned cards were mainly used to withdraw money in Rahta in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Other accused are on run, the police officer said.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get the latest updates