The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Two held, fake credit cards seized

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 02, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Two held, fake credit cards seized

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MAY 1. The Hyderabad police on Saturday arrested two persons, suspected to be Malaysian nationals, on charge of using fake credit cards and making purchases worth about Rs. 6 lakhs. The police were likely to take the help of Interpol to probe whether the credit card fraud had worldwide ramifications.

As many as 28 credit cards, most of them suspected to be fake, four mobile phones containing SMS messages in Chinese language were seized and 60 tola gold ornaments that they purchased using the cards, was recovered.

Two more members of the gang, identified as Karnail Singh Dhillon alias Kulvinder Singh, an Indian, settled in Kuala Lumpur, and another Malaysian national, Tan Choon Foo, were at large.

The arrested were identified as -- Yew Kim Guan and Yong Choon Hui. The police also seized four passports from them. Both had two passports each (one Malaysian and one Indonesian) with same names but different photographs.

Addressing a press conference here, The City Additional Commissioner of Police (Coordination), A. K. Khan, said the Malaysian an Indonesian embassies would be informed about the arrest. "There is a possibility that the accused might not be Malaysian nationals. We request the embassies to check within their countries, the antecedents and other details of the accused," he said.

Mr. Khan said there was a possibility of the accused may have visited other countries as well to carry out the fraud. Earlier, they had visited Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore after obtaining an Indian tourist visa for six months.

He said all the credit card banks and the two umbrella organisations - Visa and Master Card -- are also being informed.

Regarding the accused, Dhillon, Mr. Khan said his photograph was obtained with the help of the passport authorities. "He appears to be a clean shaven Sikh. The address given in his passport is of Punjab. We have to verify whether it is correct or not," he said adding that investigation had so far revealed that Dhillon obtained fake credit cards by creating false identities through fake passports for the three Malaysian youth (two of whom are arrested) who were working as carpenters in Malaysia.

Mr. Khan said Dhillon's photograph was made available to the railway and international airport authorities to block his exit routes from the country.

The seized credit cards were being handed over to the State Forensic Science Laboratory for further probe.

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