Bangalore, Jan 8 (DHNS): The City police have busted a credit card racket, with its nucleus in Malaysia, by arresting 14 persons.

The arrests were made following a complaint by a Jayanagar-based jeweller who had been cheated of Rs 4 lakh by the accused who had swiped a fake credit card at his shop. The police have recovered two sportsutility vehicles, gold ornaments, electronic gadgets and 11 two-wheelers, all worth Rs 33 lakh.

They also seized 27 fake credit cards of HDFC Bank, HSBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and ICICI Bank.

The police have arrested Jayakumar alias Shyamvelu, 44, one of the kingpins of the racket and, are on the lookout for the mastermind Gunasekaran, who is suspected to be operating from Malaysia. 

Gunasekaran, it is said, used to procure confidential credit card data through skimmer machines he had installed at certain stores in Malaysia and Sri Lanka in connivance with the store owners.

He used to prepare fake credit cards using the stolen data and send the cards to his agents in India. Jayakumar was one of his key agents, the police said.

Using the photographs of his accomplices, Jayakumar created fake voter identity cards and driving licences in the name of those credit card holders.

Armed with fake documents, Jayakumar’s associates went to malls, jewellery stores and other business centres during weekends and purchased high-end consumer goods by swiping fake cards.

Later, they handed over these goods to Jayakumar and collected 20 per cent commission on the total value of the purchases.

Jayakumar, in turn, sold these items in the market and shared the bounty on a 50-50 basis with Gunasekaran, the police said.

Jeweller’s complaint

Recently, proprietors of Abhooshan Jewellery in Jayanagar 9th Block had lodged a complaint with the Jayanagar police that two men had  purchased gold ornaments worth Rs 4 lakh using a credit card and cheated them. The bank had rejected the transaction as the card was fake. The jeweller had also told the police that the two men had behaved in a suspicious manner and taken objection to verification of their identity.

However, they had produced a voter identity card and given their mobile phone number. Later, the jeweller found that the mobile phone number was not in use.

Subsequently, Jayanagar police formed a special team to nab the culprits, suspecting that they were part of a larger network. The only lead the police had was the CCTV footage from the jewellery shop, which helped them identify the two men.

Hunt for mastermind

The police have now launched a hunt for Gunasekaran. They are said to have information that he has returned to India and is camping in Kerala.

Senior police officials investigating the case told Deccan Herald that they have reasons to believe that Jayakumar’s team might be just one of the several groups working for Gunasekaran and the racket may be widespread.

A special team has been formed to investigate the case further.

The arrested accomplices of Jayakumar are Maharaj alias Raja, 27, Satyanarayan alias Satya, 37, Mohammed Imran alias Javed Khan, 28, Nagaraj alias Wilson Paul alias Mathew, 30, Amith Sharma alias Arvind, 26, Girish, 22, Mohammed Masiuddin, 23, Syed Kaleem, 21, Sheik Fayaz, 21, Pradeep, 31, Rajamanikyam alias Devavelu, 45, Krishna Naidu alias Rohith Shetty, 23 and Mohammed Ayaz Sheikh alias Ganesh Santosh Kureel, 23. Some of the arrested are graduates working for private companies, the police said.