35-year-old man arrested for tampering with ATM machine

A 35-year-old man who allegedly used to tamper the mechanism of the ATM machine was arrested from West Delhi, police said Tuesday.

The accused was identified as Hema Ram, a resident of Paschim Vihar, they said.

On Monday, a victim reported that when she went to withdraw cash from an ATM kiosk, she found the accused along with a lady. The victim said that ATM machine was not working and she left the kiosk, Monika Bhardwaj, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) said.

However, the accused insisted the victim to at least give it a try. She attempted to withdraw Rs 10,000 but despite entering the password, the ATM did not dispense cash after which she left the kiosk, the DCP added.

While she was leaving, she noticed that Hema Ram was "tampering" with the keypad of the ATM machine. After a while, she received a message from her bank that an amount of Rs 10,000 has been debited from her account, the DCP said.

The victim raised an alarm after which a patrolling staff nabbed the accused and recovered the cheated amount from his possession, the DCP said.

The accused disclosed that he used to tamper with the mechanism of the ATM machine.

Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, the DCP said Hema Ram used to note down the password entered by the victim. As he would already tampered with the keypad, the password entered by the victim could not be received by the ATM. After the victim had left the kiosk without cash dispensation, he used to re-enter the password and flee from the spot with the money, the DCP added.