Three fraudsters arrested from Goldighi Mall

Three suspected fraudsters were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly swindling a person in Silchar.

The fraudsters are identified as Badrul Ali Laskar of New Dayapur and Shahid Ahmed Barbhuiya of Arkatipur. Another was identified as Shamim.

Debendra Sharma, a resident of Jhalupara, said the incident took place this afternoon when he had gone to an ATM counter to withdraw cash. When he entered the counter, four youths came in an auto-rickshaw and entered.

The youths, who introduced themselves as bank officials, told him that they were about to carry out a task in the ATM and asked him to hurry up, Sharma said.

Thereafter, Sharma inserted his ATM card in the machine and withdrew an amount of Rs. 1000. Following that, he reinserted his card to withdraw some more cash, but the machine did not work. Eventually, one of the youths took the card from his hand and inserted in the machine, but it did not work, Sharma said.

The youth then gave him the ATM card and he went out from the counter. Soon after, he received a text message in his mobile phone that said an amount of Rs. 79,000 was deducted from his bank account. Immediately, he phoned his son, who works in Aizawl, Mizoram.

Suggested by his son, Sharma went to his bank and got the statement, that said his card was used to purchase four mobile phones worth Rs. 79,000 from two stores at Goldighi Municipal Mall. Sharma went to the mall’s stores and informed about the matter. The owners of the stores thereafter started searching and found two youths, one after another. One more youth was later nabbed and later handed over to police.

A police official said the matter was being investigated and the arrested youths grilled. A search is on to nab the other person(s) involved, he said.