The police have recovered 15 credit cards and over a dozen passbooks, chequebooks, ration cards and identity proofs from their possession.

Acting on a tip-off, the team arrested Ajai Singh, Vijay Pandey, Hanuman Mishra, Akhilesh Tiwari and Mohammed Hussain from near a prominent private bank under the Kotwali police circle late on Thursday night.

Kotwali in-charge T B Singh said the mastermind of the racket, Aman Singh, owner of Singh Electronic in Kakadev area, was still absconding.

About their modus operandi, Singh said the gang members would first collect from a bank a list of credit card holders who have defaulted on payment and then visit them posing as bank staff. “They would request the card users to pay the pending amount through cheque and then take away the credit cards on the pretext of getting them reactivated,” he added. As soon as the defaulters would deposit the pending amount, the gang made transactions using the credit cards.