The Mumbai crime branch is investigating whether the Romanian national arrested for being part of an ATM heist in Kerala, had conducted the same operations in the city.
The Mumbai crime branch is investigating whether the Romanian national arrested for being part of an ATM heist in Kerala, had conducted the same operations in the city. The Mumbai police had arrested Gabriel Marian from a Navi Mumbai hotel on Tuesday night, after being informed by the Kerala police that one of the accused in the ATM robbery was hiding in the city.
Three Romanian nationals identified as Marian, Bogdean Florian and Christian Victor were recently identified by the Kerala police as being the masterminds behind a hi-tech ATM robbery wherein they installed an electronic device in an ATM kiosk, enabling them to secretly collect the pin code and card details of users. Many users allegedly received messages that huge amounts of money had been withdrawn from their accounts without their knowledge.
The Mumbai police, which nabbed Marian on Tuesday, is now investigating whether the trio had conducted any such heists in the city. Sanjay Saxena, joint commissioner of police (crime), said that a crime branch team was investigating the case for any Mumbai links.
“Our team is probing if any of the three had visited any ATMs in the city and conducted the same skimming operation here,” he said.
He added that Marian had been staying in the city since two-three days. “He stayed in Colaba after reaching the city and then some more hotels in South Mumbai and then on Tuesday went to Navi Mumbai and checked into a hotel there. Based on an information from a source, we laid a trap and arrested him from the hotel,” Mr Saxena said. A team of the Kerala police is on its way to take custody of Marian.
Mr Saxena added that they suspect that while all three of the accused may have come to Mumbai, one of them had left the country.
“We have checked records of flights leaving from Mumbai and have found one of the accused on a flight. We suspect that he has left the country and but are still conducting further investigations,” he said.
