Monday blues started early for 38 people in Mulund who were robbed of nearly Rs 15 lakh just minutes before Sunday midnight
Monday blues started early for 38 people in Mulund who were robbed of nearly Rs 15 lakh just minutes before Sunday midnight. All the victims had used their ATM cards at two Kotak Mahindra ATMs that were allegedly compromised - one at 90 Feet Road and the other at Navghar road.
(From left) Shailendra Masurkar, Ajit Wadekar and Mandar Pradhan. Pics/Rajesh Gupta
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All of them received messages about suspicious withdrawals from their accounts in a span of 10 minutes from 11.50 pm to 12 am. The Navghar police have registered an FIR under Sections 419, 420, and relevant sections of the IT Act. Ajit Wadekar, Mulund resident, recalled, "A total of Rs 25,000 was withdrawn from my account, and the location of withdrawal appeared to be Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. To avoid any further loss, I immediately ran to the nearest ATM and blocked my card."
When Wadekar got to the Navghar police station on Monday morning, he found many other complainants waiting there. Among them was Mandar Pradhan, whose account was nearly emptied. He said, "When I woke up on Monday, I found three messages mentioning withdrawal of Rs 27,000. There are only three rupees in my account now."
Another victim, Shailendra Masurkar, 58, lost R30,000. "I am a retired man, it came as a big shock to me. I contacted my bank and they blocked the card." "Till now, we have received 38 complaints. An offence has been registered and all complaints has been clubbed together," said DCP (Zone VII) Akhilesh Kumar Singh.
Rohit Rao, a spokesperson for Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, "The ATM PIN is being reset for all affected customers. We also advise customers to use the activate/deactivate feature of their debit card through the Kotak Bank mobile app to deactivate their debit card when not in use. We will give the victims shadow credit immediately and give full credit within three working days once the CCTV images have been examined."