Police busts fake call centre in Noida; 5 held

Police said they allegedly collected data of applicants through online portals, impersonated officials from the Union government, and charged victims between ₹2,000 and ₹25,000 for nonexistent jobs.

Noida police have arrested five individuals for operating a fraudulent call centre in Sector 6 that cheated job seekers by offering fake positions in multinational companies, officials said on Saturday.

The accused in police custody. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

The police’s cyber crime unit raided the operation and detained five men – Durgesh Kumar (32), Sonu Kumar (29), Puneet Singh (29), Aman Sharma (24), and Alok Kumar (25). Upon interrogation, police found that the accused were operating as an organised gang.

Police said they allegedly collected data of applicants through online portals, impersonated officials from the Union government, and charged victims between ₹2,000 and ₹25,000 for non existent jobs.

“To gain the trust of victims, the accused showed fake identity cards claiming affiliation with the Union ministry of labour and employment… They assured victims that jobs would be provided in exchange for money. Five bank accounts have been frozen so far, securing around ₹10 lakh,” said Shavya Goyal, deputy commissioner of police (cyber).

A case has been registered under Sections 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 336(3) (forgery), 340(2) (using forged documents), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence), 3(5) (common intention) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Sections 66 and 66-D of the Information Technology Act.

Meanwhile in an unrelated operation, police arrested four men linked to a series of house break-ins, recovering stolen goods worth ₹12 lakh, including 15 laptops, four mobile phones, and two motorcycles.

Police identified the arrested accused as Aamir Khan (23), the alleged gang leader, Abhishek Kumar (23), Yogendra Chauhan (25) and Arjun (38).

According to police, the gang targeted locked houses or homes where residents were away. “They first conducted reconnaissance and identified houses that had been locked for some time or where no one was present. Once they confirmed that no one was at home, they broke in to commit theft,” said Shakti Mohan Awasthy, deputy commissioner of police (central Noida).

The accused told cops that they mostly stole laptops, phones and motorcycles from different locations across NCR and sold them. Police said all four have prior criminal records.

A case has been registered at the Phase-3 police station under Sections 317(2) (stolen property), 317(5) (assisting in concealment or disposal of stolen property) and 303(2) (theft) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.