Ramakanta Biswas

Nabarangpur: Papadahandi police in the district on Sunday arrested three youths on charges of stealing cash of Rs 1.10 lakh from the bank account of another youth who happens to be their friend.

As per sources, the main accused in the case, Jaydas Hial, of BM Semla village had clandestinely stolen the SBI ATM card of his friend Niranjan Semli of the same village. The matter came to light after Niranjan lodged a complaint with police on October 23 upon finding that his ATM card was missing and Rs 1.10 lakh was deducted from his bank account.

Explaining the modus operandi of the theft, police revealed that Niranjan was unaware of the stealing of the cash from his bank account until October 17 when he found his ATM card missing. After a frantic search for the debit card in his house, he finally approached an SBI branch in the locality. He was shocked when the bank authorities told him that Rs 1.10 lakh was withdrawn from his account.

According to information revealed by the accused trio during interrogation by the cops, Hial knew the password of Niranjan's ATM card and he along with two of his associates- Ramesh Harijan and Masa Harijan- withdrew Rs 20,000 twice from his account at an ATM counter at Kodinga on September 24.

After succeeding in the two attempts, they went on to withdraw cash from Niranjan’s bank account and stole a total of Rs 1.10 lakh. Hial kept Rs 60,000 himself and distributed the remaining amount among the two others, said police.

“On the basis of the complaint, IIC of Kodinga police station, Sarita Mohapatra formed a team and handed over the investigation to sub-inspector Devdutt Mallick. The team examined the CCTV footage of nearby ATM counters and learnt the three friends of the complainant had withdrawn the cash,” said Papadahandi sub-divisional police officer Aditya Sen.

“The team immediately raided Hial's house and recovered Rs 30,000 and two cellphones. Two other accused had fled to Malkangiri and were arrested from there. Cash of Rs 50,000 was recovered from them. A case has been registered in this regard and the accused have been forwarded to court,” Sen added.

(Edited By Suryakant Jena)

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