A Romanian scamster, arrested in a debit-credit card cloning case, aped Ajay Devgn - whose character Gopal in the movie breaks the index finger of every person who points it at him - during interrogation
Marian Grama, the accused
Scenes from Rohit Shetty's hit comedy Golmaal played out at the Navghar police station in Mulund recently. Knowingly or unknowingly, a Romanian scamster, arrested in a debit-credit card cloning case, aped Ajay Devgn - whose character Gopal in the movie breaks the index finger of every person who points it at him - during interrogation, doing the same to the inspector who pointed it at him while questioning.
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Anger issues?
In the last week of December, the police had arrested international cyber fraudsters Marian Grama, 42, and Meu Ioneil, 42, and Delhiites Ganesh Shinde, 36, and Pundlik Hadkar, 24, for allegedly fitting skimming devices on various ATMs in Navghar-Mulund area and duping nearly 99 people of Rs 18 lakh. Sources told mid-day that when cops were interrogating the foreigners, Grama lost his cool and attacked the officer.
"Inspector Pratap Bhosale was interrogating Grama, pointing his index finger at him. This irritated the accused, who probably felt humiliated. He caught hold of Bhosale's finger, bit it and bent it awkwardly," a source added. After the officer screamed in pain, others rushed in to his help and took Grama away. Bhosale was given first aid.
"Marian (Grama) has a psychological issue. He gets irritated when someone teases him by pointing a finger at him. The police had been told about this," said advocate Tushar Lavhate, who is representing Grama. Sources said Grama has hurt other policemen in a similar manner in the past.
Clone experts
An officer said, "The police face many challenges, including language hurdle, when a foreigner is in custody. We deal with them sensitively, but at the same time, we need to extract information from them as well, as it's important for the investigation. Officers always try to get it tactfully. Some succeed, some don't."
Grama and Ioneil had earlier been arrested by the Vinoba Bhave Nagar police in October 2015 for duping hundreds. Officers had then recovered Rs 28.54 lakh cash, four iPhones, one Apple tab, spy cameras, skimmers, 497 blank ATM cards with magnetic codes and plastic electric coating strips along with two laptops, all amounting to Rs 31.34 lakh.
The duo would procure high-end skimming devices and magnetic strip cards from China and use spy pens (with embedded cameras) to copy (debit card) PINs. Later, the data would be used to make duplicate cards, with the help of which they would make withdrawals. The Vinoba Bhave Nagar police had clubbed maximum cases and charge-sheeted them. However, despite a watertight case, the accused had managed to secure bail last year and continued duping Mumbaikars.
99
Number of people duped in Navghar-Mulund area
Rs 18 lakh
Total amount the victims were cheated of
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