Crime branch busts fake call centre in Aarey Colony, arrests 7

Mumbai Crime Branch busts fake call centre at Royal Palms, Aarey Colony, arresting 7 employees in scams targeting US and Canadian residents.

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Crime Branch has busted a fake call centre operating from Royal Palms in Aarey Colony, arresting seven employees while searching for three who led the racket. The call centre allegedly engaged in various scams to defraud residents of the United States and Canada.

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According to police sources, employees would impersonate representatives of online aggregators, informing US and Canadian residents that their bank accounts were compromised for illegal activities like money laundering or drug dealings. The victims were then coerced into transferring money to specific Bitcoin wallets. In some instances, the fraudsters posed as prosecutors from the Canadian Crown Prosecution Department to deceive people.

“They would then ask the gullible victim to transfer all the money deposited in their bank accounts for safekeeping to a Bitcoin wallet through the Text Now application by sharing a barcode with them. Later they used to steal all the money from the wallet,” said the police officer.

The police said they acted on a tip-off and raided the call centre at Royal Palms, arresting seven individuals employed by Joho Tech Solutions Pvt Ltd. The arrested suspects are Shafique Badgujar, 42, Shansunder Jaiswal, 28, Nikhil Kakkar, 23, Sudhakar Pandey, 23, Sanjay Kumar Raidas, 25, Mohit Patnaik, 25, and Karan Gupta, 27.

“We are searching for three more accused who are the main accused identified as Jignesh Chauhan, Suraj Singh, and Parikshit Pandya. They are booked under sections 170 (personating a public servant), 34 (common intention), 419 (cheating by personation), and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code,” said the police officer.