A police team from Mizoram, with help from the city force, has hunted down a man wanted in Aizawl for allegedly committing a visa fraud and cheating several government-accredited recruiting agents.

The accused is now admitted to a city hospital with an ?excruciating pain in the stomach?.

Officers said John Verghese Pothen, alias Cabin John, was a member of an international racket and had duped recruitment firms by posing as an agent of big companies abroad. ?The man had earlier duped several agencies in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Nepal and even in Calcutta,? said L.P. Hrangchal, superintendent of the Aizawl police.

The cops came to know about the racket after a recruitment agency in Aizawl lodged an FIR (case no. 231/05) against Pothen in April. The agency had complained that Pothen had fleeced it of Rs 1.83 lakh by promising to get jobs for 45 persons.

?We launched an investigation and came to know a lot about Pothen, who was then operating from Calcutta. We also came to know that he had duped several other agencies. It was necessary that we arrest and interrogate him to bust the racket, which is active across the country,? said investigating officer O.S. Majumder.

Accordingly, a two-man police team from Aizawl came to the city on Thursday and picked up Pothen from his Regent Park hideout.

?We have received a lot of help from the city police, which conducted the operation so fast that the accused hardly got any time to flee,? added another officer.

?On Thursday, we had received the necessary transit remand for Pothen from the chief judicial magistrate of Alipore. But on Friday morning, we learnt that Pothen had been admitted to hospital, following complaints of pain in his abdomen,? the officer added.

The officers are now not sure when they will be able to take Pothen to Aizawl. Deputy commissioner (north) C. Rameshbabu said: ?We are helpless. Unless Pothen?s doctor certifies him fit, we cannot release him.?

The accused has engaged a lawyer, who is now preparing to move court for bail. ?Once he gets bail, he will be virtually free and it will not be possible for us to track him down,? said an officer of the city force.