Pathankot, Aug 10 (IANS): Pathankot Police on Wednesday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang that duped thousands of people by swapping their ATM cards and withdrawing money from their accounts.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Pathankot, Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh said police had recovered 66 ATM cards, Rs 19000, a swipe machine and SUV car.

He said the arrested accused have been identified as Ramesh Kumar, Parveen and Sikander, all residents of Hisar, Haryana. He said taking serious note of the incidents of ATM card frauds, a special drive 'Cyber Security' was launched, under which the entire district was kept on vigil to curb such incidents.

The gang members used to move around in different states of North India in four-wheelers targetting ATM booths sans security guards. The SSP said that the arrested accused revealed that they had been duping people for past two-three years.

Investigations revealed that Parveen Kumar provided them the swipe machine and entered into a 60:40 partnership to share the looted money. "In the initial phase, Police had found that the accused had carried out transactions of Rs 2.31 lakh from this swipe machine and withdrew thousands of cash from the ATMs in a single day.

SSP said that a detailed investigation will be carried to find out the final figure of frauds committed by them.