Rawalpindi - Police have busted a gang involved in hacking pin codes of ATM cards of account holders of different banks and transferring money.
Police arrested two of its active members, including a foreigner, after exchange of fire here at Kalma Chowk, sources told The Nation yesterday.
A constable also sustained bullet injury in the encounter who was shifted to a hospital, sources said. The accused were identified as Waseem Aftab and Stifen Adrion, a Romanian national having passport number 053053399 who also got injured during firing, sources added.
According to sources, the incident took place at Kalma Chowk at 01:00pm when two persons fixed an electronic chip in ATM machine of Askari Bank Limited and tried to hack the pin codes of ATM cards of account holders. In the meanwhile, the bank manager informed RA Bazaar police about the crime of the two persons.
Taking action, a police team headed by ASI Ijaz and constables Asif and Arshad rushed to the scene and tried to catch the two fraudsters, they said adding that seeing police, one of the men started indiscriminate firing on police party and a bullet hit at the hand of constable Asif whereas Stafin also got injured during firing.
Police arrested both the criminals and shifted the injured constable and Romanian national to hospital for medical treatment, sources said.
SHO PS RA Bazaar Jahangir Bhatti, when contacted, confirmed the incident saying police had registered a case against the two culprits and started investigation, besides recovering a 9mm pistol and bullets from their possession. He said that the culprits were part of a gang involving in looting money illegally of ATM holders by installing a chip in ATM machines of various banks in the city. He said that one of the two culprits was a Romanian national who had also lived in Italy and other foreign countries and committed the same crime there.
“So far the two culprits have transferred million of rupees to foreign banks through installing chip in the ATMs and hacking the pin codes of account holders,” he said. He said that police would produce the culprits before a court of law and obtain their physical remand for further recovery.