ATM card swapper in Giddalur gets six-month imprisonment

TIRUPATI: Additional Judicial First-Class Magistrate (AJFCM) Court, Giddalur, has sentenced a 30-year-old ATM card swapper, who targeted elderly individuals and cheated them of money, to six months imprisonment.

According to Prakasam district SP Malika Garg, Syed Chinna Madar Saheb, a 74-year-old resident of Kommunur village in Giddalur mandal, visited SBI Bank in Giddalur and deposited ₹67,000. While at the bank, he sought assistance from a person named Peddireddy Obul Reddy, hailing from Hyderabad, to retrieve a mini statement. Obul Reddy asked the old man for the PIN. However, after generating the statement, Obul Reddy handed back another ATM card to Madar Saheb and kept the original card with himself.

Later, Saheb's daughter wanted to withdraw money using the card but discovered it did not belong to her father. Saheb and his daughter immediately reported the incident to the bank. They realised that their ₹67,000 had been fraudulently withdrawn from the account.

They registered a case with Giddalur police station on January 21. Following an investigation of the case by sub-inspector B. Brahma Naidu, the police apprehended Obul Reddy and filed a charge sheet in court. Police and assistant public prosecutor S. Raghunadha Rao provided substantial technical evidence and testimonies to prove the guilt of the accused.

AJFCM Court Judge B. Mary Saradhanamma pronounced the accused guilty and sentenced him to undergo six months of simple imprisonment.