Facebook helps police get their hands on ATM thief

Kagdapith police on Thursday arrested a man accused in an ATM theft case registered with them over three month ago. Rajesh Tripathi who hails from Madhya Pradesh was caught with the help of social networking site, Facebook. Two others accused in the case had been arrested earlier.

Tripathi had put up his personal details and photos on Facebook through which his travel agent and another accused in the case identified him to the cops. Tripathi had taken the agent's help to book a train ticket from Patna to Udhna station in Surat. Based on this information, Kagdapith police reached the railway station in Surat and with help from railway officials there, nabbed Tripathi.

The theft came to notice in July when retired school clerk, Karsan Adhiyal, filed a complaint stating that he was relieved of his pension money amounting to Rs1.98 lakh by a gang of ATM thieves. Adhiyal had stated that when he inserted his ATM card into the machine at an AXIS Bank ATM, the power went off.

A person standing inside the ATM, later identified as Ashok Gupta, had told Adhiyal that the ATM would not be operational for another two days. He had further advised Adhiyal to go to the main branch of the bank and register a complaint regarding the same.

Disappointed, Adhiyal left the ATM and registered a complaint with Kagdapith police about the "lost" ATM card. Investigation revealed that the power going off was no coincidence as the power supply had been cut off by a person who was part of a gang of ATM thieves. Using CCTV footage of the ATM centre, the police had identified Ashok Gupta and nabbed him from Gandhinagar within days of the incident.

After Gupta was questioned by the police, he named one of his accomplices, one Kishore Nahiya, who was also arrested. However, Tripathi had made good his escape. Nahiya then pointed out Tripathi's travel agent who identified him through Facebook in front of the cops.