Six illegal call centres busted last week, many moving out of Gurugram, say police

The Gurugram police and the chief minister’s flying squad last week busted six illegal call centres, being used to defraud people, from the city, Faridabad and neighbouring Delhi, even as the police said that call centre operators are shifting their base to other cities in the National Capital Region (NCR) due to increased vigilance in Gurugram.

The police and the chief minister’s flying squad last week busted six illegal call centres, being used to defraud people, from the city, Faridabad and neighbouring Delhi, even as the police said that call centre operators are shifting their base to other cities in the National Capital Region (NCR) due to increased vigilance in Gurugram.

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According to the police, more than 45 people were arrested and fake documents, hard drives, workstations and laptops were seized from the locations since last March.

Karan Goel, the assistant commissioner of police, DLF, said that the more than 50 such setups that had shifted out were busted from Delhi, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad in the last year. “We have been regularly carrying out raids in all suspected locations such as Sohna Road, Udyog Vihar, Palam Vihar and other residential areas. Many have rented spaces in commercial complexes in other cities as it is cheaper when compared to Gurugram,” he said.

The illegal call centres dupe foreign nationals posing as officials of law enforcement agencies and coercing them into transferring money to them on the pretext of fines, the police said. The suspects used to threaten US citizens that their social security numbers (SSN) would be blocked or that they would be booked for consuming drugs or taking loans based on forged documents, the police said.

KK Rao, the commissioner of police, said that they are coordinating with other districts and the national capital to ensure these illegal setups are cleaned and strict action can be taken against the suspects. “People are moving out their operations but are easily setting up in other cities and districts. We all have to join hands and conduct regular raids in our jurisdictions so that this illegal business can be stopped,” he said.

The police said that most of the operators of such call centres were repeat offenders and operated in the same groups, with not even one conviction over the last six years.

Palwal’s superintendent of police (SP), Deepak Gehlawat, said they have busted three illegal call centres from Delhi’s Mayur Vihar, Peera Garhi and Uttam Nagar that were earlier operating from Gurugram. “We have recovered strong evidence against them and during questioning, they revealed that due to the strictness in Gurugram they had shifted their base,” he said.

The police said the suspects did not possess any valid OSP (other service providers) licence from the department of telecommunications or any other agreement or MoU related to their work, following which action was taken against them across NCR.

In January this year, Rao had directed station house officers (SHOs) to watch out for illegal call centres and warned of strict action if any such centres are found running in areas under their respective jurisdictions.

Inderjeet Yadav, the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) of the crime investigation department (CID), said that they regularly received tip-offs and on average, they used to raid at two establishments every month. “Since the beginning of this year, the number of illegal call centres has reduced and many have shifted their locations to Faridabad. We are focusing on other cities also.”