Mumbai crime branch busts 2 fake call centres, arrests owners

Unit 11 of Mumbai Police’s crime branch busted two bogus call centres in Malad and arrested the owners for allegedly duping people in the country as well as people from gulf countries under the pretext of investment schemes in the share market

Unit 11 of Mumbai Police’s crime branch busted two bogus call centres in Malad and arrested the owners for allegedly duping people in the country as well as people from gulf countries under the pretext of investment schemes in the share market.

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During raid, police found 75 people working in the call centres who were using voice over internet protocol (VoIP) to contact people.

The owners of the two centres have been identified as Giriraj Navratan Damani, 39, and Aditya Vikram Maheshwari, 40.

Acting on tip-off about illegal fake call centres being operated in Malad (West), a police team of unit 11 raided the two call centres, one at GoldLine Business centre and the other at Eureka Tower, Chincholi Bunder Road, on Tuesday.

During interrogation, the employees and owners said they allegedly called Indian citizens as well as people in gulf countries through VoIP, claiming to be calling from Singapore. The employees then convinced the people to invest money Indian and international share market through their company, said a crime branch officer.

The accused would then ask the victims to deposit at least USD 200 in their company’s account to be invested further for high returns, said inspector Vinayak Chavan of unit 11. Police are now probing how many people the accused have duped so far and how they got the contact details.

Both the owners have been arrested under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information technology act. They were produced in the court and remanded in police custody till June 28.