Mr perfect card fraud lands behind bars

Several banks in the city targetted by a gang of swindlers

• Cops seize hundreds of fake PAN and voter ID cards from the gang
• They submitted fake Income Tax return forms to obtain credit cards from various banks

Hyderabad: Police on Tuesday arrested a gang of 14 persons on charges of making fake PAN and voter ID cards to procure credit cards, and seized 167 credit cards of various banks, 196 PAN cards and 199 voter ID cards from the gang.

Speaking at a press conference at his office, CV Anand, Police Commissioner, Cyberabad said, “The racket has serious repercussions for the security of our nation in the present scenario as PAN cards and voter IDs are the most important cards issued by the Central government authorities for acquiring passport and Aadhaar cards.”

The Special Operations Team (SOT) had apprehended the kingpin of the gang Mogulla Jagan Mohan Reddy alias Srinivas Reddy alias Ram Reddy, resident of Uppal and native of Warangal district, who had cheated various national and international banks and pocketed Rs 63.5 lakh in just three months.

Explaining the modus operandi, the Police Commissioner said the accused Mohan was a school dropout and worked as a security guard before he joined ICICI Bank and RPVS chartered account office. While working at ICICI as Field Verification Officer, he unearthed the loopholes in verification process and issuance of credit cards.

He acquired several PAN cards and voter ID cards from the government authorities using photographs of various persons and created fake Income Tax Returns forms with which he was successful in obtaining credit cards of various banks. He bribed field verification officers of banks and courier boys of Blue Dart and Fast Track Courier services to get his work done.

“So far the accused procured 75 credit cards from HDFC Bank and drew Rs 40.5 lakh. He managed to get 55 cards from SBI and used them at petrol pumps and gift shops and availed cash of Rs 23 lakh by paying three per cent commission to the owners for helping him,” the Commissioner added.

The other accused arrested for their involvement in the racket were Zaki Ahmed, 27, field officer of a private company, G Kishore Goud, 30, employee of Reliance store, Addulla Suresh Reddy, 28, employee of Reliance Communications, Sahik Mujahid Hussain, 24, Ghatkesaram Charan Dass, 25 and Bangaru Mahesh, 30, delivery boys of Blue Dart courier services, Donti Sairaj, 31, Khaja Shafiuddin ,36, fashion designer, Khazi Nazeer Ahmed, 34, mechanic, J Krishna, 28, systems operator at Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), K Bhaskar, 32, a private financier, S Obilesh, 22, private bank employee and S Santhosh Kumar, 26, sales executive of American Express Bank. A case has been booked against the accused persons under sections 406, 408, 420 and section 471 of IPC by Medpally police and investigation is on.