MARGAO: With the arrest of one Augustine Carvalho, 26, resident of Majorda, the police hope that they have captured the person involved in several cases of theft. The person impersonated as a policeman and relieved victims of their cash.

Investigations revealed that while the victims were left poorer, the accused had a gala time gambling at casinos. He would mainly target non-Goans.

With several witnesses and a CCTV footage, which showed the accused operating an ATM card, the police are confident of a strong case. Now, the next step during investigations, is the identification parade.

"We are sure that Augustine is the person who was involved in the recent case of posing as a policeman and withdrawing money from the ATM of the complainant,'' said a senior police officer.

Another police officer, who is also handling the case, affirmed that Augustine was the person who ran away with cash from a person returning from Cuncolim industrial estate last year, after posing as a policeman. It is believed that the accused, presently serving police remand is the same person involved in earlier cases at Quepem and Colva.

The latest case for which the accused has been arrested relates to the shocking incident which took place on January 6 at Mahanagar housing society, Maddel.

In this case, the accused, riding a bike, approached two persons who were walking home and inquired about their identification documents. As the duo had nothing but their ATM cards, they produced the same only to be told to authenticate the cards and thereafter the three entered a nearby ATM center of the ICICI bank.

Here, the accused noted down the code number while the cards were inserted into the machine and asked the victims to write their names and addresses. While the unsuspecting duo obeyed the man's orders, the accused, who was in possession of their cards, sped away on his bike and reached another ATM center in the city where he used one of the cards belonging to one Mohit, the complainant, to withdraw Rs 20,000. (The other card of his friend did not have any substantial money to be withdrawn).

In another incident last year, he targeted one Krishna Nand Pandey,who was going on a bike after collecting money from a transport company in the Cuncolim industrial estate.