PANAJI
After over two months of manhunt and meticulous inter-state coordination, the Cyber Crime Cell of Goa Police arrested a cybercriminal from his home village in Mewat, Haryana where he remained in hiding after tampering with ATMs in Goa to withdraw Rs 9.24 lakh in December 2022.
SP Shivendu Bhushan (IPS) informed that this was his team’s second attempt to arrest Mubarik Muhammad after analysing his pattern of movement.
“It was imperative to apply a different mechanism to lay our hands on the accused. We coordinated with our counterparts in Haryana and identified two criminals. Our team camped in Mewat for a week... It requires 6-8 vehicles with armed policemen to catch any accused from this village, which is known as a hotbed of cybercriminals,” the SP said narrating the sequence of events to arrest the fraudster.
He further revealed that through effective intelligence gathering and consistent coordination with the Haryana police, Mubarik was taken into custody. “Our team once again visited the place and camped until the accused finally stepped out of his hide-out. He was arrested and brought to Goa,” the officer said.
His accomplice is however at large. Bhushan said the accused’s interrogation will throw light on the whereabouts of the second accused.
The case pertains to tampering with the online connectivity at ATMs belonging to RBL Bank, and withdrawing Rs 9.24 lakh dishonestly. According to a complaint lodged by the bank officer in December, unidentified persons disrupted/disconnected the bank’s network connection at its ATM locations in Panaji, Mapusa, Calangute and Margao while processing transactions of debit cards.
The police are yet to recover the amount, but it has written to relevant authorities to freeze his bank accounts. The investigation team is also probing his role into other similar offenses as counterparts in other states are alerted about the development.
