Expelled from Army, man now held for fraudulently withdrawing money from ATM

A 38-year-old man, who was expelled from the Army in 2016 on theft and other criminal charges, has been arrested for allegedly withdrawing money from ATMs by replacing cards of the customers unable to operate the machines, police said on Saturday. Total 32 ATM cards and Rs 30,000 in cash were recovered from the possession of the accused, Rajender Singh Meena, a resident of Sikar in Rajasthan. He was previously involved in 16 cases, they said.

One Neeraj Kumar, a resident of Bihar, lodged a complaint in which he said he, along with his friend, was staying at a Hotel in Delhi's Mahipalpur, police said. On August 23, at around 11.30 am, he went to withdraw money from an ATM in Mahipalpur but the transaction declined due to some technical problem, they said.

A person standing behind Kumar told him that the ATM was working slowly and took his card on the pretext of helping him withdraw money. In the meantime, he replaced Kumar's card with some other ATM card, a senior police officer said. After some time, Kumar received a message on his mobile phone regarding withdrawal of Rs 30,000 from his bank account through an ATM. Suspecting foul play, he rushed to the same ATM kiosk along with a police officer, they said.

The person was identified by Kumar at the ATM kiosk after which the accused was arrested, said Devender Arya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest). Interrogation revealed that Meena used to hack ATM machines by inserting some instrument.

Whenever any customer came to withdraw money, the transaction used to decline due to the ATM hacking. On the pretext of helping the customers, he used to replace the ATM card and later withdraw money from their accounts, the DCP said. Meena was served the army for 18 years. He was dismissed from the force in 2016 on the allegation of theft and other criminal cases registered against him, he said.

Meena is called 'Robinhood' in his village as he used to spend the money he would get from cheating amongst the villagers. He was also planning to contest the panchayat elections, police said.

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