Man resembling City ATM attacker caught on camera in AP

In a breakthrough, the Anantapur police who were investigating a murder case involving a woman in Dharmavaram have spotted a suspect who resembles the assailant in the Bangalore ATM kiosk attack case.

The woman was murdered for gain and the assailant had snatched away the debit cards. 

The Anantapur district police have obtained the closed circuit television (CCTV) footage from an ATM kiosk at Kadiri where the suspect had used the debit card he had snatched from the deceased.

The CCTV footage, released by the Dharmavaram police on Sunday, showed a person who resembles the Bangalore assailant. In this case, too, the culprit was wearing the same blue striped shirt and was carrying a hand bag while withdrawing cash on November 11 and 12.

Circle Inspector Dharmavaram Urban Police Anjaneyulu said Prameelamma (55), a widow, was living alone in a dilapidated shed in Dharmavaram. She was found hacked to death in her house on November 10.

The police sources said they initially suspected murder over property dispute.
However, Dharmavaram DySP Shaik Nawab Jan said the victim’s son received a message on his mobile about a transaction done using a debit card that belonged to the deceased two days after the murder.

Investigation revealed that the suspect had snatched two debit cards belonging to Prameelamma, of which one was active. Further probe revealed that he had withdrawn Rs 4,000 and Rs 15,000 using the card from a State Bank of India ATM kiosk in Kadiri. The present balance is only Rs 62.

The DySP said the culprit did not know how to withdraw cash from an ATM. He said the footage showed another woman customer who helped him withdraw money.
The police said the suspect was seen mingling with other customers and was observing their PIN numbers for almost 30 minutes in this instance.

Prameelamma had sustained injuries inflicted by a sharp weapon, like a machete. The police now suspect that the assailant snatched away the debit cards, attacked her gruesomely on her legs, extracted the PIN number and later hacked her to death. He said the assailant had also smashed her mobile phone and had thrown away the SIM card.

The modus operandi in the Bangalore ATM kiosk attack is also similar. In both cases, the culprit has targeted a woman for gain through debit cards.

But in Bangalore, the culprit attacked a woman in an ATM kiosk. Also, he returned to the district and sold Jyothi Uday, the victim’s, mobile phone to a second-hand dealer in Hindupur.

A senior official from the Bangalore Police said the latest footage has strengthened their suspicion that he is a local crook from the border towns of Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the Ananthapur police have distributed posters, made out of the CCTV footage which has been cleaned and enhanced by the Bangalore Police, to every railway station, bus stand, police stations and even gram panchayats in the border areas. A special team of the Central Crime Branch led by a senior officer has left for Ananthapur.

The man looks dangerous and maybe involved in serial offences with a similar objective, targeting single women, a senior officer said. They were also looking into whether there have been similar crimes in the region involving the suspect.