By Easwaran Rutnam The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is investigating a major fraud involving a group of Indians in which several local banks were hit. Police sources said that five Indians were arrested following a complaint made by Hatton National Bank (HNB). Investigators believe the suspects are part of an international network involved in financial crimes using POS terminals. HNB confirmed that it had lodged a complaint with the CID after it was found that fraudulent transactions were being made using a Point of Sales (POS) terminal at a store in Fort. The private bank had reported to the Police saying that suspicious transactions were being made at the store located at Gold Centre in Fort. Gold Centre is occupied by jewellery stores and dealers and among them was a store which claimed to be selling jewellery. The owners of the store located on the ground floor of Gold Centre had applied for a PoS terminal machine to carry out their business. A POS machine was supplied to the company which was registered as a business in Sri Lanka. Investigations revealed that between 29 September and 30 September this year; 90 fraudulent transactions were conducted at the store. Of the 90 transactions, four had been successful while the rest failed despite repeated attempts. From the successful transactions the store had managed to transfer $ 1,110 to their company account. In all, the suspects had attempted to transfer at least $ 266,771 to their account but managed only $ 1,110. The Police visited the store at Gold Centre following the complaint and found empty showcases. Five Indians were later arrested on suspicion and several items used in the scam were also recovered. Those arrested were identified as Mohamed Bawa Mohamed Nawsath, Bava Rawther Mohamed Haneefa, Chellasamy Baskara Sethupathiy, Marimuthu Gowthaman and Suresh Babu. The Police took into custody an encoder machine, 20 forged credit/debit cards, a laptop, six mobile phones and payment receipts issued by HNB Bank, Sampath Bank, Commercial Bank and Seylan Bank for the forged transactions made via the POS terminal. Several documents were seized by the Police from the store at Gold Centre, Police sources said. Further investigations revealed that the suspects had obtained a POS terminal from Commercial Bank and carried out a transaction using a forged card to the value of $ 1,987.97. The funds were transferred to the bank account of Mohamed Bawa Mohamed Nawsath. Following the transaction the POS terminal had been disconnected. The suspects had also obtained POS terminals from Sampath Bank and Seylan Bank but they were also disconnected, investigations revealed. Further investigations revealed that Bava Rawther Mohamed Haneefa was a registered doctor in Tamil Nadu. It was also revealed that Bava Rawther Mohamed Haneefa was heading the operation in Sri Lanka. Bava Rawther Mohamed Haneefa was found to be a close relative of Mohamed Bawa Mohamed Nawsath. Mohamed Bawa Mohamed Nawsath carried out the duty of opening accounts at the local banks. Marimuthu Gowthaman was meanwhile found to be a lawyer registered in Tamil Nadu. Further investigations revealed that the suspects are part of an organised criminal outfit involved in a major scam using credit/debit cards. The assistance of the international Police, Interpol, has been sought to conduct further investigations into the suspects and their links. When contacted by The Sunday Morning, officials at HNB said that they alerted the Police as soon as they became suspicious about the transactions being made by the Indians. Officials said that they managed to avert a bigger fraud by detecting the fraud early and alerting the authorities. Meanwhile, officials at the Indian High Commission in Colombo said that they were aware of the arrest of five Indians but were awaiting further details.