LTTE men suspected in Bangalore credit card fraud

On Saturday police have arrested suspected LTTE men in Mangalore. It seems the police have hit upon an interesting link after the Saturday arrest. It is the same person who used to supply fake credit cards to the suspected criminals and the one involved in the credit card racket unearthed in Bangalore last year.

Kumar alias Chennai Kumar used to supply these cards to the suspected LTTE men - Bala Reuben and Nalla Tambi Jayasheelan. Bangalore police suspects that he might have distributed fake credit cards to his men here too. In June 2007 Chandra Layout police had cracked a huge credit card fraud. Three men were arrested for swiping cards belonging to unknown persons from abroad. Interestingly, three arrested - Srigandhpal, Sai Prakash and Nagaraj - had revealed only one name - Kumar.

It seems there are other connections too. In the Chandra Layout case, many international banks credit cards were used. The two Lankans also possess seven cards of such MNC banks.

"Four of the 11 credit cards seized from the duo are issued by ICICI Bank and Indian Bank. However, all the other cards are of different international banks. The accused know nothing about the bank. All they know is that someone called Kumar supplied them. We are still trying to contact those banks," a police officer said.

There was a lack of information about Kumar so investigation into the Chandra Layout case could not be carried out further. Srigandhpal and Kumar had met several times in Bangalore. "Kumar and his close associate Muruga came often to Bangalore. During those visits, Kumar distributed credit cards to them. He would get in touch with his associates to collect his share once the credit cards were swiped and the booty made. He would give them a share in the profit and disappear with the rest of the money. There is no trace of Kumar and his whereabouts are not known," a senior police officer said. The investigation done from the arrested Lankans in Mangalore, Kumar is a major LTTE operative and a citizen of Australia. It is alleged that he might have brought in many LTTE operatives from Jaffna and surrounding areas to Bangalore.

Bala Reuben from Vavuniya and Jayasheelan from Jaffna have been remanded to police custody. A team of officials from Bangalore is also questioning them.