Delhi Police arrest 12 people for running fake call centre
The police has arrested 12 people for allegedly running a fake call centre in Rohini and defrauding over 700 by promising them loans at low interest rates under the a cooked-up government programme called the ‘Pradhan Mantri Loan Yojana’, spokespersons of the agency said on Monday. The owner of the call centre, however, is still at large, said the police.
The police said that the arrested suspects rain the operation for at least seven months, and cheated people Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand.
Deputy commissioner of police (Rohini) Pranav Tayal said the district’s cyber cell received information around 11.30pm on August 28 about a fake call centre being operated from a building near Vishram Chowk in Rohini’s Sector 6.
The 12 people — 11 women and one man — were arrested during a raid later that day.
“They were defrauding people in the name of providing loans,” said Tayal.
The arrested man was identified as 24-year-old Deepak Saini, a resident of Delhi’s Nangloi. Police have not disclosed the names of the arrested women.
Tayal said the arrested women worked as tele-callers and called people in different states. They introduced themselves as authorised agents offering a central government scheme providing loans to start businesses at exceptionally low interest rates.
“Any client interested in the scheme was asked to fill a form meant for getting financial assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Employment Generation Programme. The loan amount ranged from ₹one lakh to ₹20 lakh. The suspects then roped people in with lucrative offers and tricked them into depositing money as a processing fee for the loan amount. They used to charge between ₹40,000 and ₹2.5 lakh to sanctioning the loan, said Tayal.
In some cases, the suspects even issued fake loan approval letters.
“The arrested people duped more than 700 people in less than a year. We have got a few complaints and have identified some more victims who will be contacted for their complaints,” said an investigator who asked not to be named.
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