Kerala: Man held for stealing money from 140 ATMs of South Indian Bank in Kochi

The accused had been identified as Mubarak and had stolen Rs 25,000 via seven transactions on August 18-19, added the statement.

The South Indian Bank's statement reads, "the South Indian Bank Ltd (SIB) at this moment issues clarification on some media reports concerning incidents in the Bank's ATMs, located in Ernakulum City and its vicinity."

The accused person was reported to have obstructed the machine's cash dispensation mechanism by placing an object, just in front of the shutter seemingly blocking the cash, read the statement.

After the customers left the ATM premises, the accused removed the object and took out the dispensed money.

"As soon as these stray incidents were reported in our ATMs, the Bank took necessary measures to prevent such incidents and forthwith filed a Police complaint before the Kalamassery police station. The Bank had also filed a complaint before the Director General of Police (DGP) and before the City Commissioner of Police, Ernakulam, requesting to nab the culprit/s involved, at the earliest," as per a statement by the bank.

The statement further said, "police have shown great alacrity and arrested the accused involved in the stray incidents on August 26, 2022, and thus averted repetition of such incidents in other Bank ATMs."

"All the complaints received from the customers connected to this incident have been duly attended to and the Bank has refunded the amount," as per the statement.

"Additionally, the Bank has proactively identified, such incidents and without waiting for the customer complaints, refunded the amounts," the bank said. (ANI)