Gang of ATM hackers busted in UP's Pratapgarh, 3 held

ALLAHABAD: A joint team of crime branch and Mandhata police of Pratapgarh on Friday claimed to have busted an inter-state racket involved in card cloning and arrested three of its key members near Buapur Nahar Pullia, Vishwanathganj Road.
The police also recovered one .32 bore factory-made revolver, two country-made pistols of .315 bore, several live cartridges of different bores, two bikes, one laptop along with charger, one ATM cloning machine, two ATM card readers, four software CDs, 10 ATM cards, Rs 7,500 cash, six mobile sets, one driving licence and one Aadhaar card from their possession.
The arrested persons were identified as Brijesh Kuamr Singh alias Chanchal, Kaushlendra Pratap Singh alias Chotu Singh and Pravin Kumar Singh, residents of Mandhata.
Pratapgarh SP Abhishek Singh said, “Acting upon a specific tip off three members of an inter-state gang involved in cloning of ATMs were moving on Vishwanathganj road with an intention to dupe customers, a joint team of crime branch and Mandhata police cordoned the road and nabbed three of the members riding on two bikes.”
He added, “The gang members were operating in different states for the past 12 years and one Ranjeet Singh is the kingpin of the gang.”
The SP said that the police had also been looking for other gang members, including Ravi Patel, Ranjeet Saroj, Ranjeet Singh, Dheeru Singh alias Jitendra, Gajendra Pratap Singh alias Annu, Vinod Nirmal Kotedar and Deepak Singh, residents of Mandhata.
The police said Ranjeet Singh, who is also involved in the smuggling of weapons, used to take illegal arms from one Muzeeb and supply it to the criminals. Besides, he operates a well organised ATM cloning gang.
Cops said that the arrested persons were also wanted by Madhya Pradesh police as they had executed several ATM cloning incident in MP, Mumbai, Bihar and other states.