WhatsApp helps police bring ATM crook to book
The police zeroed in on Hasmukh with help of CCTV footage and surveillance of active mobile phones at ATMs where he had been active.
Mumbai: Messaging application, WhatsApp, came in handy for the Mira Road police to nab a notorious fraudster, Raju Hasmukh Bhatt (29) who conned several people of their money on the pretext of helping them use ATMs at unguarded kiosks in the city.
The police zeroed in on Hasmukh with help of CCTV footage and surveillance of active mobile phones at ATMs where he had been active. A former military personnel registered a complaint with Mira Road police after being duped of Rs 40,000 at a Mira Road ATM on March 31. Thereafter, an investigating team, led by PSI Mahesh Kuchekar and personnel Vijay Brahme under supervision of senior police inspector Jagdish Patil, analysed thousands of numbers from the data dump at one of the crime scenes, and narrowed down to some suspects. The team managed to obtain the suspects’ photos from their WhatsApp profiles and tracked them to a beer bar in Mumbai Central on Thursday night.
The accused has been booked under section 420 of the IPC and remanded to police custody till May 22.