BHUBANESWAR: Three notorious criminals from Bihar’s Nawada district were arrested in Bhubaneswar on Sunday after a brief shootout with police.
Deepak Kumar (25), one of the accused, suffered a bullet wound to his left leg but recovered after treatment at AIIMS Bhubaneswar. The other arrested men were Deepak Kumar Pandey (24) and Abhikesh Kumar Singh (32).
Police sources indicate the suspects arrived in Odisha three or four days earlier, planning ATM thefts in Puri and Bhubaneswar. According to commissioner of police S Dev Datta Singh, they were habitual offenders specialising in ATM tampering and theft of cash. “They previously committed an ATM theft in Ranchi, Jharkhand in January. They were wanted by Ranchi police,” Singh said.
At around 3 am on Sunday, the commissionerate police’s special squad, during their night patrol, spotted the suspects on an isolated stretch of Puri new bypass road near Kesura within Badagada police jurisdiction. Upon seeing the police approaching, the suspects attempted to escape in an unregistered car, suspected to be stolen. During the chase, the suspects allegedly opened fire on police officers, who returned fire, hitting Deepak in the left leg. None from the police side was injured.
Police intercepted the vehicle and, despite resistance, apprehended the suspects. They recovered one country-made 7.65 mm semi-automatic pistol, one live round, and two fired cartridges. Additional seized items included Rs 12,000 cash, three mobile phones, adhesives, 12 stolen ATM cards, and one knife.
As per the police commissioner, the accused belonged to an organised interstate Bihar-based criminal group, specialising in ATM fraud. Their modus operandi involved applying adhesive to ATM card slots and displaying false helpline numbers. When customers called these numbers after cards became stuck, the criminals obtained their banking details. After customers departed, they retrieved trapped cards using knives to withdraw money.
DCP Jagmohan Meena said that efforts are on to verify the suspected involvement of the accused in previous ATM thefts in Bhubaneswar and other places in the state. Police are planning to take the accused on remand for interrogation.
On February 17, the Balianta police arrested a Madhya Pradesh-based robber following an encounter. The accused, Arjun Anare, who received a bullet wound to his left knee, was involved in several apartment burglaries in Bhubaneswar.