2 Delhi cheats held for conning nurse of Rs 27 lakh

MUMBAI: Two members of a Delhi-based gang, which operated a call centre from rented rooms and used data stolen from an insurance firm, were recently brought to the

MUMBAI: Two members of a Delhi-based gang, which operated a call centre from rented rooms and used data stolen from an insurance firm, were recently brought to the city in a defrauding case.

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They allegedly duped a 52-year-old nurse from Andheri of Rs27 lakh while posing as managers of an insurance firm she had bought a policy from.

The accused — Amit Singh, 29, and his aide Rehan Siddiqqui, 30, — are from Ghaziabad in UP and were arrested by the Delhi police, which busted the racket last month. The Andheri police sought their custody and a team brought them to the city on Friday. “The school dropouts are part of a racket which takes small rooms on rent in Delhi to run the call centre. They not only changed their rented address every two months but also their phone numbers. Both offices and SIM cards were obtained on fake papers and 16 such SIM cards have been used by this gang. The gang would make hundreds of calls every day and two to three persons would fall prey to their trap,” said an official.

An operator, who is still at large, in an insurance firm supplied stolen details of customers to the gang, the police said.

The cheats would promise the insured high dividend on their premium if they deposited a certain amount into the bank account. The gullible and unsuspecting fell prey to the glib-talking of the gang members.

The racket ran its call centre from Shastri Nagar in Delhi and the accused made over 100 phone calls to the complainant, a single mother, over a period of six months and she deposited the money 25 times in different bank accounts. Singh and Siddiqqui would open bank accounts on fake documents and arrange rooms for the gang.

The nurse filed a complaint under charges of cheating and criminal breach of trust on August 16. The nurse, who had bought the insurance policy two years ago, said she did not suspect anything amiss as they had got her personal and policy details correct.

She said they cooked up different reasons every time to persuade her to deposit money. They once asked her to deposit money to not let her insurance agent get 30% of her policy amount.

The police said the gang has splurged a lot of money and no recovery has been made so far.

The nurse told the police that she has been defrauded of her life savings meant for her son. Incidentally, the gang had realised that they will be caught and were in the process of starting a legal business using the ill-gotten money. They have been remanded in police custody till September 13.