Two arrested for swindling Rs. 8.65 lakhs using stolen ATM card of deceased Covid victim

Investigations revealed that the two men who hailed from Assam had managed to steal the card when cleaning the woman's hospital room in May 2021.


Coimbatore: Two men hailing from Assam were arrested by the Coimbatore police for stealing nearly Rs. 8 lakhs from the account of a woman by using her stolen ATM card. The woman had died of Covid-19 at a private hospital in the city.

Yashoda, wife of Murugasamy from Gobichettipalayam in Erode had been admitted to a private hospital in SITRA after she contracted Covid, last May. She was treated at the intensive care unit but succumbed to the virus during treatment.

Murugasamy reportedly noticed that a huge amount of money has been missing from Yashoda's account when he went to withdraw money after her demise. Suspicious at foul play, he approached the bank and on scrutiny it was found that about Rs. 8.5 lakhs had gone missing. The bank staff stated that the cash had been debited periodically from an ATM since May 2021 which was when Yashoda had died after undergoing treatment at the hospital. Following this, Murugasamy got suspicious and immediately lodged a complaint with the Peelamedu police in Coimbatore.

The Peelamedu police registered a case and conducted investigations. They questioned two sanitary workers at the hospital named Atul Joshi and Raj Bengaon, both from Assam, who had reportedly cleaned Yashoda's room frequently when she was admitted at the private hospital. Since both gave contradictory replies, the police officials intensified the inquiry after which both men confessed to having stolen Rs. 8, 67,710 using Yashoda's ATM card. Yashoda had reportedly written the ATM PIN at the back of her ATM card.

Investigations revealed that the duo had gone inside Yashoda's hospital room to clean, stole the ATM card and used it in several installments to withdraw cash. Following this, the police arrested the duo and produced them before court. The duo have been jailed.

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