CHENNAI: The chief metropolitan magistrate, Egmore, has allowed the central crime branch (CCB) police to take credit card fraudster Manoj Kumar into their custody for two days.
Police teams plan to conduct a detailed inquiry to know about his background and recover stolen and fake credit/ debit cards from him. "We will try to get information about a few more credit card gangs operating in Chennai and other parts of the state," a police officer said. Kumar will be produced before the magistrate court in Egmore on Thursday.
CCB sleuths arrested Kumar, 37, in Bangalore on April 27. Police said he had swindled several lakhs of rupees from people living abroad, by swiping fake credit cards made using stolen data. CCB police had sent a lookout notice for Kumar to all the airports in the country. Immigration officials in Bangalore nabbed him when he landed at the airport from Malaysia and alerted CCB in Chennai. A team led by inspector G Dillibabu brought Kumar to Chennai and sent him to Puzhal prison.
Police said, Kumar was booked for running a brothel in Chennai in 2002. He was picked up again by CCB police in 2007 and 2010. Madipakkam police detained him under Goondas Act in 2009. He was also booked by the Bangalore and Hyderabad police for credit card frauds there. He is believed to have contacts with Umesh, another credit card fraudster of Sri Lankan origin. Police found Kumar's gang had cloned 22 credit cards and purchased goods worth 14 lakh.