Pune: The Crime Branch of the Pune city police has arrested three persons of Uttar Pradesh who exploited a technical bug in Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and cheated various banks for the fraud of Rs 17 lakh.

The fraudsters used to withdraw the amount from their accounts. As soon as the cash would dispense from the ATM, they insert an object in the flapper as a result flapper would remain opened sending a signal to the bank that the transaction failed even though the amount was debited from the account.

The suspects are identified as Sandeep Kumar Ramsanehi Prajapati (19), Arvind Rajaram Kumar (24) and Ashok Rajaram Kumar (25) all are residents of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Ashray Dixit, branch official of State Bank’s Hinge Khurd branch had lodged a complaint at Sinhagad Police Station between October 7 and October 24 alleging that unidentified persons had deposited money in the bank's ATMs and laundered Rs 96,000 from them. A parallel investigation into the matter was being conducted by a unit of Unit III of Crime Branch.

Senior Inspector of Police Rajendra Mokashi led the team comprising Assistant Inspector of Police Bhalchandra Dhawale and other police personnel and arrested the fraudsters using the help of CCTV footages. In the investigation, the police found that the total amount of the fraud topped Rs 17 lakh. The court has remanded them in police custody for nine days.

“Unit 3 of the Crime Branch nabbed three men for the ATM fraud worth Rs 17 lakh. The fraudsters used a technical bug in the cash dispensing machine to trick the system into registering failed transaction even though the suspects collected the dispensed cash. An investigation is underway,” Bachchan Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) said.