Suspects of Ambani cousin's credit card cloning case out in the open

CBD-Belapur: The Navi Mumbai crime branch is still clueless about the whereabouts of the three suspects, who were allegedly involved in a credit card cloning case at Rabale. Niraj Ambani, the eldest cousin of Relience chairman Mukesh Ambani, lost Rs2,01,394 in the theft around one-and-a-half-month ago.

"So far, we have arrested three persons in connection with the crime. They are Mehul Shah, a resident of Vasai, Faizi Raza, a resident of Mira Road and Jayant Gauda, 32, a resident of Dahisar. We have also received details about other three suspects who were allegedly involved in the crime. We hope to get hold of them within a short span of time," said Pratibha Shendge, police inspector from the crime branch.

Ambani got to know about the transaction when he was in a meeting at Rabale office on December 26, last year. "The victim did not take the theft seriously even after receiving text messages on his mobile phone. As his wife was out of town at that time, Ambani considered her to have had swiped his card. However, coordinating with the bank, he later got to know that one of his old cards which he had destroyed long back was being used in the transactions. He then approached us and registered a case," Shendge said.

The police arrested Shah and Raza within a few days of the case being registered. "They gave us the phone number that the third accused, Gauda, who was hiding in Bangalore was using and we asked him to surrender the phone. He finally surrendered himself in our Belapur office on Monday," said Shrikant Pathak, deputy commissioner of police (crime).

The police have recovered around 200 credit cards and debit cards and a laptop from the suspects. "It seems they are members of a huge racket. We are investigating the case to get hold of the remaining culprits," Pathak said.