Chandigarh court acquits man in ATM card cloning case due to lack of evidence

A local court has acquitted Mukul Garg, who had been booked in connection with three ATM card cloning cases dating back 11 years. The prosecution was unable to prove the charges against him. Garg, along with his female accomplice Ramandeep Kaur, was arrested in June 2013 when they arrived at the Chandigarh airport after boarding a flight from Mumbai. Both are residents of Ludhiana and were known to travel frequently to different cities across the country.

The police had arrested them following complaints from city residents who reported their ATM cards had been misused and unauthorised transactions had been made in various cities. In the course of the investigation, the police obtained CCTV footage and other evidence from several shops. It was alleged that Ramandeep Kaur was identified in the footage and had used different names while using the cloned cards.

The police claimed the accused were skilled at cloning ATM cards using a magnetic reading machine. According to the charge sheet, the duo had committed a series of frauds by cloning cards in various locations, including petrol pumps across Chandigarh, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. The police further stated the couple had forged connections with employees at these petrol pumps, providing them with debit card swipe machines. The cards used for payments at these pumps were swiped through the magnetic card readers, which copied the card data.

After an investigation, the police filed the charge sheet in 2017 and charges were framed against the accused. They both pleaded not guilty and opted for trial. Ankur Chaudhrie, the defense counsel for the accused, argued the prosecution had failed to substantiate the charges. The police were unable to prove the accused had cloned the cards. Additionally, it was noted the accused was not seen in the CCTV footage provided by the Chandigarh police. Furthermore, an ATM reading machine presented by the police was found to be broken.

After hearing the arguments, the court acquitted Mukul Garg in all three FIRs registered against him. Ramandeep Kaur, unfortunately, passed away during the trial in 2017.