The Colaba police has found an eyewitness in the Axis Bank ATM fraud case, who saw two Bulgarian people as they were fitting and removing the skimmer in the machine. However, the man did not know that the foreign nationals were fitting card data-stealing devices.
Shaikh Haider (20) was the guard posted at the DGP office Axis bank ATM booth between February and May. He was the guard-cum-housekeeper as he also looked after the maintenance and cleaning work. The Bulgarian men, Tsenev Yulian Georgiev (27) and Elin Pelin (26), had come to the ATM on April 6, 12, 13 and 19 to fit and remove the scanner, and during this period, Mr Haider was posted there on 24-hour duty.
“On April 12, when the duo came at around 11.13 pm and removed the skimmer that they fitted on April 6, Haider was sitting inside the ATM booth. On April 13, when the duo again came to the booth at 10.47 pm to fit the skimmer in the machine, Haider was again present in the booth,” said an officer.
He added, “We learnt about someone sitting in the booth when we repeatedly went through the CCTV feeds of the booth. We saw that on April 12, while leaving one of the accused smiled and talked to someone sitting near the machine (out of the camera’s frame). Even on April 13, when the duo was leaving the booth, one of them smiled and waved to someone inside the booth. We inquired with the supervisor of the security agency and we were informed that it was Mr Haider.”
Since one of the accused had covered the machine, Mr Haider could not see what they were doing, but he has confirmed that both came to the booth on those two nights, another officer said.