Kolkata ATM fraud accused held after auto chase through Delhi lanes

KOLKATA: The detective department on Monday claimed to have cracked the great Kolkata ATM fraud case with the arrest of a Romanian after a dramatic auto chase through south Delhi lanes. The arrest came exactly eight days after the gang struck in the city and siphoned money from the accounts of over 71 ATM users.
The cops arrested Siliviu Florin Spiridon (28), a resident of Constanta in Romania, from Greater Kailash around 5pm on Monday.“The accused had been putting up at a rented apartment at the E2 block of Greater Kailash along with three others. We are trying to identify them. Spiridon had started withdrawing money from November 30 using skimmed data from Kolkata and continued doing so till December 3,” said a police officer.

Between December 3 and December 6, he used data at ATMs to dupe around 200 accounts-holders from Delhi. He had initially withdrawn money from Greater Kailash ATMS within a radius of 200 metre. But unlike last time, he had now been scanning ATMs in a 5km radius across south Delhi and withdrawing money at will,” said joint CP (crime) Murlidhar Sharma.
“Our men scanned through 250 Romanian tourist visa entries provided by FRRO and matched their photographs with those found at ATMs. We then kept vigil at Greater Kailash and Safdarjung Enclave ATMs for past 72 hours. It was finally around 7.30am on Monday morning that we got our match at a Bank of India ATM in Safdarjung. He realized that he was being spotted and sprinted to get away from cops. He boarded an auto and got off in Greater Kailash. We followed him in another auto but lost track once he took the bylanes. It was only around 3pm — after a door-to-door enquiry — that we got him. He was detained and finally arrested,” said Sharma. The accused claimed to be a crew member of a Romanian airline.
Cops said the accused had used tourist visas to visit India thrice this year — first on March 20, then on July 19 and finally on October 14. “We found 24 caps, around a dozen sunglasses and a huge stock of costly clothes along with the latest iPhones and costly gadgets. Skimming devices, accessories, magnetic strips, batteries, pinhole camera chip and laptops have been seized from his rented residence,” said an officer. A police team has been stationed at Delhi to carry out further raids and ascertain the identify the three men with whom he was putting up.
Police are bringing Spiridon to Kolkata on transit remand. “He has been trying to skirt questions. We need to ascertain if he had set up the skimmers himself or hired someone to do the job. The greater possibility is that this job was done by Indians from whom he bought data,” said an investigating officer.