The Bangalore police have initiated action to track down the accomplices of Nadeem Kashmiri, a staffer of a multinational bank, arrested late on Tuesday night on charges of data theft, which was used to illegally transfer money from the bank accounts of UK-based customers.

Kashmiri, however, might just be a "pawn in a syndicate," a senior Corps of Detectives official said in Bangalore.

"The investigation into the modus operandi adopted by the accused to pass on the information about the United Kingdom customers indicates that he could just be a pawn in the whole syndicate," Sanjay Vir Singh, deputy inspector general of police, economic offences, COD, told PTI in Bangalore on Tuesday.

"It was through one of the three mobiles that Kashmiri possessed, which was still in operation that we were able to track him down," Singh said.

"Director General of Police, COD, K R Srinivasan said Kashmiri's friends and relatives based in Bangalore had also been traced and the COD team probing the case would be assisted by HSBC's technical team from Hyderabad which had already arrived.

Srinivasan alsos aid: "If need be, it would seek the help of Interpol as the crime had an international dimension."

He said Kashmiri would be produced before the court soon.

"The actual fraud was committed between March 14 and April 3 after which his ID was plugged by HSBC which later suspended him on April 14," Singh said.

"The COD team is focusing on "how Kashmiri passed on the information and got the payment" and will be assisted in technical and procedural details of the fraud by the HSBC's technical team from Hyderabad, he said.

"The two-member COD team deputed to trace Kashmiri on the basis of a complaint lodged by HSBC, Electronic Data Processing India Limited, nabbed him at Netaji circle, Frazer town in Bangalore on Tuesday and produced him at the Cyber Crime Police Station (CCPS).

"Kashmiri told police that he was a resident of Pillanna Garden, Bangalore, and had studied up to pre-university first year.

"He said he had been trained in cell phone mechanism at Wings Institute of Technology and assisted his brother in a poultry shop for sometime before joining as a customer service executive in Providian Credit Cards at Whitefield in Bangalore.

"Kashmiri had a one month stint in Accenture before joining HSBC on Dec 12, 2005 by producing forged qualification certificates," Singh said.

"On the impact such a fraud would have on the BPO industry, Srinivasan expressed confidence that this would only make the BPO and bank authorities more vigilant "to find effective ways and means to provide foolproof security to their clients so that such incidents do not recur."

"On reports of the police not ruling out Kashmiri's alleged links with terrorist organisations or the underworld, Srinivasan said "all the various links and associations are being thoroughly verified."

"Giving credit to HSBC for detecting the fraud in its initial stages, Srinivasan said the bank had taken enough security measures without which the fraud "would not have been been limited to this extent."

"HSBC Electronic Data Processing India Pvt Ltd. Bangalore, the bank's BPO arm had lodged a complaint with the cyber crime unit of the COD, naming Kashmiri in the fraud allegedly involving the siphoning of �233,000.

With inputs from UNI