New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS) Delhi Police have busted a fake call centre in Delhi's Uttam Nagar which scammed more than 1700 people on the pretext of providing them loans and arrested 12 people in this connection, an official said on Wednesday.
Police said that the fake call centre was disguised as a medicine supply store.
According to M Harsha Vardhan, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka), specific inputs were received regarding an illegal call centre being run at Uttam Nagar and that it is cheating people on the pretext of providing a loan.
"The call centre was being run by Faisal, a resident of Sanjay Nagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh and his team. On inquiry, Faisal misled the police team by saying that he is running the call centre for selling and advertising the medicines," said the DCP.
"He had even kept some medicines on the counter to mislead police. However, on sustained interrogation, it was revealed that all the employees were working as customer support agents and they used to call the customers for offering loans," said the official.
"They then used to provide the bank account details and ask the customers to deposit a processing fee amount in that bank account," said the official.
"One Paras, a resident of Sanjay Nagar in Ghaziabad had taken the place on which call centre was operating on lease. He is absconding in this case. Efforts are being made to nab him," said the DCP.
"Apart from Paras, three other persons are also involved in this fraud syndicate who used to provide backend services like bank accounts for collecting the money and fraud SIM cards, advertising or sending bulk SMS regarding loan on mobile numbers. Their details are being ascertained in this case and efforts are being made to nab these accused persons," said the DCP.
"The call centre has been running since February 2022. As per the scrutiny of the registers and further interrogation, it has come to light that the accused had cheated more than 1700 innocent people," said the DCP.
"Total 29 registers containing a list of contacted persons depicting money and amount transactions were recovered. The amount cheated from these persons is likely to exceed Rs 1 crore," said the official.
"A total of 12 persons, including six women, were working in the call centre and were nabbed by a police team on the spot," said the official.
The CBI had registered a case on April 13, 2016 on the request of Chandigarh Administration and had taken over the investigation of the FIR earlier registered at Police Station, Sector-26, Chandigarh.
Bishnoi, who was brought from New Delhi after procuring the transit remand from Patiala House court, was produced in a Mansa court in Punjab at around 4 a.m. amid high-level security after his medical check-up.
The police have also recovered an illegal weapon and live cartridge from the criminal. The accused has been identified as Aakash, a native of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.
The Punjab Police informed Delhi Police that the location of one of the phone numbers was traced to Delhi, and that the accused were changing their locations frequently. Acting on the tip-off, Delhi Police followed the leads obtained through technical surveillance and digital footprints.
SSP Mohali, Vivek Sheel Soni said, the two accused identified as Gagandeep Singh alias Gaagi and Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi are residents of Dabbwali in Sirsa district of Haryana.
