Fake call centre in Delhi made 13 cr in 2 years while duping at least 225 people

The gang operated in an organised manner, and had separate people performing tasks like making calls, creating bank accounts with fake documentation, and withdrawing the cash.

A fake call centre that duped more than two hundred people of at least Rs. 13 crore in the last two years has been unearthed with the arrest of 11 suspects, the Delhi Police said on Saturday.

11 arrested by Delhi Police in connection to fake call centre case. These people have made 13 crore rupees in 2 years by duping 225 people. (Twitter/ANI)

SD Mishra, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini), said at least 225 people have been identified by analysing bank transactions, which showed the gang’s bank accounts to have received Rs. 13 crore.

Mishra said the gang operated in an organised manner, and had separate people performing tasks like making calls, creating bank accounts with fake documentation, and withdrawing the cash.

The special staff of Rohini district police had begun trailing this gang ever since they received a complaint from a 63-year-old retired bank manager at KN Katju police station in May this year. The elderly man had lost Rs. 20 lakh between April 2018 and May 2019.

“The victim told us that he had been contacted on phone by people offering insurance and investment plans. He kept investing his money until one day they snapped contact with him after he demanded some money back. Once he realised he was being cheated, he approached us,” Mishra said.

The officer said the investigators began by analysing the bank accounts in which the elderly man deposited his money and the phone numbers from which he received calls.

Earlier this week, the police finally managed to nab a suspect, Prabhat Kumar, while he was withdrawing money from a bank. The officer said Kumar’s task was just to withdraw the cash using cheques or ATM cards.

Kumar allegedly spilled the beans on the group’s functioning and helped the police with the whereabouts of his associates. In the following days, the police arrested 10 more suspects.

The DCP said the fraud was started by two friends, Jitender and Robin Mathew, in 2016 from Faridabad. “They became friends while working for insurance sales call centres. In 2016, they decided to start their own operations and roped in people to make calls, open bank accounts using fake documents and withdraw the money,” said the officer.

“While Jitender oversaw operational responsibilities of the fraud, Mathew handled the banking and financial aspects,” he said. The gang had recently allegedly transferred their operations from Faridabad to a mall in Gurugram’s MG Road, the officer added.

So far, the police have unearthed 14 fake bank accounts in four states that were being used to receive money from the victims, the DCP said. The arrested men include two who operated the call centres, three tele-callers, four men who had provided bank accounts opened on fake documents and two tasked with withdrawing cash.

“Each of these men has cheating cases against them, but they continued to operate despite some of them being arrested in the past for similar offences,” Mishra added.