`1.5 crore siphoned off using fake credit cards

In a major bust, the sleuths of Commissioner’s Task Force, North Zone Team, unearthed a credit card scam on Thursday and apprehended 10 men, including the kingpin, GHMC employees and bank agents, and seized `6.9 lakh along with incriminating material. They had siphoned off `1,52,10,705 using 125 credit cards of HDFC, SBI, SCB, and RBL banks by floating a fictitious company in the name of Parnika Nano System Pvt. Ltd. In the process, they cheated the public sector and private banks after developing an employee database and acquired credit cards in bogus employee names.

The arrested accused were identified as Kumbham Ranga Reddy, resident of Hayath Nagar, the kingpin of the fake credit cards racket, his brotherin-law and business partner, Thipparthi Vinay Kumar Reddy, Meka Santosh Reddy, internet service owner, who prepared fake documents in support of voter IDs and pan cards, Varikuppala Srikanth, who approved the voter ID card, Makkala Naresh, GHMC, election cell employee in circle IV & V, LB Nagar Zone, who approved fake voter ID cards, Gopatoti Kishore Babu, an HDFC bank employee, Gorantla Sailesh Kumar, Reddypally Sandeep Kumar, Uppu Anand, and Muddunuru Paramesh Kumar. Only the prime accused availed of credit cards where he cheated a huge amount.

The kingpin, Kumbham Ranga Reddy hatched a plan to make easy money by floating a shell and fictitious company in the name of M/s. Parnika Nano Systems Pvt., Ltd., at Vijetha Arcade in Karmanghat cross road.

He developed an employee database by creating proofs of fake house addresses and dates of birth of various fictitious employees and opened salary accounts in various banks for fake employees by showing their employment with M/s Parnika Nano System Pvt Ltd. Subsequently, the kingpin applied for credit cards from banks by submitting the available voter ID and pan cards of the fictitious employees. After procuring credit cards in this clandestine manner between October 2013 and February 2015, `45.72 lakhs was siphoned off.

During a general audit, the bank authorities identified the scam. Based on a tip-off, North Zone team laid a trap and apprehended the gang on Thursday.