Interstate credit card cloning racket busted

[email protected] (CD Network, Photos by Ahmed Anwar )

February 25, 2012

Mangalore, February 25: Sleuths of city crime branch (CCB) of Mangalore City Police on Saturday busted a two-member inter-state gang of cheats who had perfected the art of cloning credit cards.

The arrested are Zishan Mohammad (24), son of Ihsanullah from Richards Town, Bangalore, and Gujarat based Kelwin Patel (26), who was residing at Kudroli, Mangalore.

Mangalore City Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh told media persons at his office that the duo have had transactions with American Express bank, Standard Chartered bank, Citibank through six credit cards and they were also using methods of making fake credit cards and confiscating account numbers of different people.

They used to transfer funds into the credit cards using special software and possessed writers and readers to operate their business, he said.

The police have also recovered from them a laptop which had the software to transfer account numbers into the fake credit cards. A magnetic swipe card, IC card, readers and writers were also recovered. The accused also possessed receipts of purchases of up to Rs 3.5 lakhs from a shop and also usage of the cards at Leela Palace Hotel in Bangalore. They used mobile phones and internet modems to operate their business, informed the commissioner.

Mr Singh said that the accused used to steal account numbers from national and international account holders and with the help of their equipment transferred funds into the credit cards. Their mobiles contained several details of account numbers and SMS sent to pass on information about account numbers, he said adding that the case might involve several other persons and an investigation is on.

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Why Mangaluru Could Become India’s Next Offshore Wind Energy Hub

News Network

February 3,2026

Dakshina Kannada MP Capt Brijesh Chowta has urged the Centre to give high priority to offshore wind energy generation along the Mangaluru coast, citing its strategic importance to India’s green energy and port-led development goals.

Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha under Rule 377, Chowta said studies by the National Institute of Oceanography have identified the Mangaluru coastline as part of India’s promising offshore wind ‘Zone-2’, covering nearly 6,490 sq km. He noted that the region’s relatively low exposure to cyclones and earthquakes makes it suitable for long-term offshore wind projects and called for its development as a dedicated offshore wind energy zone.

Highlighting the role of New Mangalore Port, Chowta said its modern infrastructure, multiple berths and heavy cargo-handling capacity position it well as a logistics hub for transporting and assembling large wind energy equipment.

He also pointed to the presence of major industrial units such as MRPL, OMPL, UPCL and the Mangaluru SEZ, which could serve as direct buyers of green power through power purchase agreements, improving project viability and speeding up execution.

With Karnataka’s peak power demand crossing 18,000 MW in early 2025, Chowta stressed the need to diversify renewable energy sources. He added that offshore wind projects in the Arabian Sea are strategically safer compared to the cyclone-prone Bay of Bengal.

Calling the project vital to India’s target of 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030, Chowta urged the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to initiate resource assessments, pilot projects and stakeholder consultations at the earliest.

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