Ludhiana fake call centre case: Police nab 11 more accused from Delhi, Mohali

The accused, hailing from Gujarat and Delhi, were providing financial and technical support to run the fake call centre, which was involved in duping US and UK citizens

Investigating a fake call centre case, the police here have arrested 11 more accused, including kingpins of the racket, in different raids conducted in Sahibzada Ajit Singh (SAS) Nagar and Delhi.

As per investigation, the accused have bought multiple flats in posh localities in Ahmedabad using the proceeds of the crime (Representative Photo/HT)

The accused, hailing from Gujarat and Delhi, were providing financial and technical support to run the fake call centre, which was involved in duping US and UK citizens. A total of 38 accused, including four African nationals, have been arrested so far in the case.

The police have seized cash and property worth ₹1.52 crore from the gang, besides recovering ₹27 lakh hawala money and freezing ₹39.80 lakh lying in the bank accounts of the accused. Apart from this, 516 grams of gold worth over ₹17 lakh, 12 laptops, 26 mobile phones and two cars have been recovered.

Ludhiana police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal said joint teams of the cyber cell and CIA-1 conducted raids at Mohali and Delhi, leading to the arrest of 11 more accused, including the kingpins of the module. Out of them, 9 were apprehended from a rented apartment in Kharar, SAS Nagar. They belong to Gujarat and include kingpins — Pratik, Peenak, Dhruv Mehta and Jigar.

The accused provided fake bank accounts, hawala channels, contacts of US, UK and Canada citizens and training to the Ludhiana-based module.

Agrawal added that a similar modus operandi was being used at the Mohali-based fake call centre, where the accused, posing as tax, insurance authorities, used to call unsuspecting citizens in UK, US and Canada and commit financial frauds. The victims were asked to transfer money to local bank accounts which would be rerouted to India through hawala channels or using cryptocurrency like Bitcoins. Bitcoin wallets of the accused are also being confiscated and frozen.

In another raid conducted in Chattarpur area of Delhi, accused Vaibhav Gupta was apprehended. He was the technical backbone of the module and provided software, servers for VoIP calling, call dialers, calling minutes, troubleshooting support to the Ludhiana-based module.

“Accused Vaibhav used to receive regular monthly payments for his services. Since the majority of payments by the accused were made and received through hawala channels, raids were conducted at hawala dealers’ premises in Ludhiana which led to arrest of one Sachin Patel, a Gujarat native, from Sham Nagar near Ludhiana bus stand. Around ₹27 lakh hawala money was recovered from him,” said Agrawal.

As per investigation, the accused have bought multiple flats in posh localities in Ahmedabad using the proceeds of the crime. A thorough financial and technical investigation will be done to account for the proceeds of the crime and reveal pan-India forward and backward links of this module and unearth the complete racket, said the police commissioner.