Sign in

Eight arrested in raid on fake gaming call centre in Gurugram

Siddhant Jain, deputy commissioner of police (cybercrime), said that they learned about the centre through the “Pratibimb” portal of the Union ministry of home affairs

Updated on: Apr 3, 2024, 06:36:16 IST
Share
Share via
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
Copy link
  • copy link

Eight people were arrested after a raid on a fake gaming call centre in Gurugram’s Sector 52 that was being run on the directions of a cybercriminal from Sri Lanka, police officers aware of the matter said on Tuesday. Investigators said that the raid on the centre, running from a rented house in Koyal Vihar, was carried out on Monday night.

The arrested suspects were identified as Sunil Kumar alias Sonu, 42, Pawan Kumar, 24, Arshdeep Kumar, 27, and Tarun Kumar, 20, of Fatehabad, Paras Deep, 19, of Sirsa, Deepak Kumar, 21, of Matlora in Hisar, Himanshu Kumar, 20, of Patiala Chowk in Jind, and Rajender Kumar, 37, of Aghar Jitto in Jammu and Kashmir. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)
The arrested suspects were identified as Sunil Kumar alias Sonu, 42, Pawan Kumar, 24, Arshdeep Kumar, 27, and Tarun Kumar, 20, of Fatehabad, Paras Deep, 19, of Sirsa, Deepak Kumar, 21, of Matlora in Hisar, Himanshu Kumar, 20, of Patiala Chowk in Jind, and Rajender Kumar, 37, of Aghar Jitto in Jammu and Kashmir. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

The arrested suspects were identified as Sunil Kumar alias Sonu, 42, Pawan Kumar, 24, Arshdeep Kumar, 27, and Tarun Kumar, 20, of Fatehabad, Paras Deep, 19, of Sirsa, Deepak Kumar, 21, of Matlora in Hisar, Himanshu Kumar, 20, of Patiala Chowk in Jind, and Rajender Kumar, 37, of Aghar Jitto in Jammu and Kashmir.

Priyanshu Dewan, assistant commissioner of police (cybercrime), said that Sunil was the head of this call centre running from the city. Investigators said that he paid 25,000-30,000 salary and commission to the other suspects.

“The centre was functioning for the past year. The modus operandi was to dupe money from people under the pretext of investment in gaming platforms for winning jackpots. Sunil was running the centre with the help of a suspect from Sri Lanka. Investigation is underway to determine the identity of the foreign national. It will become clear later if more such centres are operating in the country,” said Dewan.

Meanwhile, Siddhant Jain, deputy commissioner of police (cybercrime), said that they learned about the centre through the “Pratibimb” portal of the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA).

“One of the suspects’ victims from outside Haryana had lodged an online cyber fraud complaint on 1930 helpline. We got to know about their presence in our jurisdiction from real-time surveillance provided by MHA and carried out the raid,” Jain said.

“We seized 28 mobile phones and three laptops from the suspects. We will share the information recovered with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, which will clarify how many people across the country were duped by the gang and how much crores of money was stolen,” the DCP said. The suspects were operating several bank accounts in which their victims deposited money via UPI, investigators said.

Police said the suspects were taken on two-day police remand for detailed interrogation on court orders.

  • Debashish Karmakar
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Debashish Karmakar

    Debashish Karmakar is a principal correspondent with the Hindustan Times, Gurugram bureau. He has a vast journalistic experience of almost 14 years of covering crime, court, power, transport, administration, weather and other beats while working across various organisations. He has been covering Gurugram, Faridabad, Nuh, Palwal and other districts of southern Haryana for more than four and a half years. He has produced several breaking and exclusive stories while reporting from the ground where he maintains a strong presence on a daily basis. He writes news articles which are hard-hitting and accurate. With his strong bureaucratic sources, he frequently writes stories to expose the failure of the system forcing authorities to take necessary course-corrective steps. Besides crime, important convictions and court orders, he also writes on human-angle stories, on power issues and challenges faced by the residents on a daily basis in Gurugram and neighbouring areas. In the past, he worked for media houses like The Times of India, where he extensively reported on important government matters and daily proceedings at the Patna High Court. He has also worked in the electronic media and had done ground coverage on the Kedarnath deluge that wrecked Uttarakhand in 2013.Read More