Alleged UK bank scammer still at large

BANGALORE, INDIA - Karan Bahree, who allegedly sold information on U.K. bank accounts to a reporter from The Sun, remained at large a day after a news story appeared about him in the London tabloid.

The Sun reported Thursday that Bahree sold a reporter operating undercover information on 1,000 bank accounts. Bahree reportedly obtained the data from contacts at call centers in Delhi, where the information was sold. The Sun in its online edition, however, gave the name of the seller as Kkaran Bahree.

Police in Delhi say that they cannot make an arrest unless there is a formal complaint from either the call-center companies in India from where the information was allegedly stolen or from the affected banks or customers in the U.K. "As soon as we get a complaint, we will arrest him," said a police official on condition of anonymity. Police are conducting their own investigations, he added.

"From what I understand there has been no complaint registered with the police here, probably because investigations are still going on in the U.K.," said Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM). " Until they have a complaint, the enforcement agencies haven't much to go by at this point."

NASSCOM announced Thursday that it would cooperate with law enforcement agencies in India and the U.K. to ensure that those responsible for any criminal breaches are promptly prosecuted and face the maximum penalty.

However, Bahree denied the allegations in an interview Thursday to BBC World Service radio, and said that he had given a CD to the undercover reporter at the request of another person, without knowing its contents.

Infinity eSearch, a Web services company in Gurgaon, near Delhi, where Bahree is employed, has distanced itself from its employee. Infinity does not have bank clients in the U.K., and does not handle financial information for its clients, Rahul Dutt, managing director of the company, told reporters Friday in Delhi.

Bahree has been with the company for three months and is still on probation, said Dutt, adding that Bahree had been asked to give an explanation about his alleged role in the scam by 5:30 p.m. Friday local time. Bahree, who was not in the office Friday, sent a written explanation before the deadline claiming, according to Infinity officials, that he gave The Sun reporter a CD at the insistence of a friend without knowing that it held classified contents.

Bahree was employed as a call-center worker by Daksh eServices Pvt. Ltd., a business process outsourcing company in Gurgaon from 2001 to January last year, before the company was acquired by IBM. He quit under normal circumstances, according to informed sources, who added that at the time he left Daksh the company was not offering financial services.