CUTTACK: Police arrested a notorious ATM thief, who used to steal money from the customers’ accounts right under their nose on the pretext of assisting them in using their cards, from Bajrakabati Road here on Thursday. The cops, in fact, caught hold of Sambham Kumar Acharya in the process of investigating the ` 20-lakh loot at Haripur Road a couple of days back. The miscreants had used a black Pulsar motorcycle to rob two employees of a transport company in board daylight. Police on Thursday found a black Pulsar parked in front of the Bajrakabati Road SBI ATM and a person lurking inside with half of his face covered with a handkerchief. Suspicious, they cornered him and found a bhujali in his possession. As he was booked and probed, he emerged to be the ATM thief who has attained notoriety not only in Cuttack but also in Bhubaneswar and the adjoining districts. He had allegedly stolen more than ` 4 lakh in the last one year and arrested on several occasions. About ` 85,000 has been recovered from him, DCP Pravin Kumar said.Acharya of Balichandrapur in Jajpur district used to prowl around the SBI ATMs specifically as they have no guards posted in them, looking for gullible people. He used to fix the buttons with some adhesive so that they wouldn’t work. Then he would step in and offer assistance to the targeted person. In the process, he would acquire the pin number of the card. Once the money was withdrawn, he would ask the person to count the money to divert attention while he pressed buttons for keeping the transaction process active. After the person leaves the ATM, Acharya would withdrew money from his account.In the latest case, he had withdrawn ` 35,000 from the account of one Binod Padhiary of Dhenkanal. While splurging on the loot with lavish lifestyle and gadgets, he had also deposited huge sums in his account at the SBI PBB branch at Badambadi and also in his father Krushna Acharya’s account at SBI Chandikhol branch.He had been arrested by Commissionerate police in Bhubaneswar in November last and `80,000 recovered from him. After getting bail, he had again taken to the crime and was caught again in Cuttack in January. But he managed to get bail in March and returned to his old ways.
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