An exhaustive 5,786-page charge sheet was filed by the Thane police crime branch on Friday in the call centre scam busted in October after raids on nine call centres in Mira Road.
The charge sheet says the employees, masquerading as American revenue officials, made threatening calls to people in the US, forcing them to make payments. The charge sheet, however, is silent on money trail.
The call centres were raided on October 4. The probe that followed found the centres were used as a front to cheat loan defaulters in the US. Police sources said the call centres’ employees would target loan defaulters.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Parag Manere said 80 people have been named as accused in the charge sheet, which has been split into three parts — one for the case at Kashimira and two more for cases Naya Nagar police station. Three accused are common to all cases. The scam’s alleged kingpin, Sagar Thakkar, alias Shaggy, his sister Reema , business partners Tapesh and Jimmy are among 28 who are wanted.
“The charge sheet has statements from 200 witnesses, including 10 who were under oath” assistant commissioner of police (ACP), crime, M Hatote told HT. “This will bolster evidence in the case,” Manere said. The DCP said the police also came across numbers of some of the victims. “We sent them text messages, requesting them to register complaints,” he said. The police provided them an email address and links to fill complaint forms. “So far, we have received 40 complaints from the US. This will be used as evidence,” Manere said. Seized cars and laptops, computers, hard discs, chairs and tables have all been clubbed as evidence. The accused have been charged under IPC sections for extortion, cheating, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy, apart from sections of the Indian Telegraph Act and IT Act.
{{/usCountry}}“The charge sheet has statements from 200 witnesses, including 10 who were under oath” assistant commissioner of police (ACP), crime, M Hatote told HT. “This will bolster evidence in the case,” Manere said. The DCP said the police also came across numbers of some of the victims. “We sent them text messages, requesting them to register complaints,” he said. The police provided them an email address and links to fill complaint forms. “So far, we have received 40 complaints from the US. This will be used as evidence,” Manere said. Seized cars and laptops, computers, hard discs, chairs and tables have all been clubbed as evidence. The accused have been charged under IPC sections for extortion, cheating, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy, apart from sections of the Indian Telegraph Act and IT Act.
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Thane call centre scam: Police get vendors’ details from emails
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