Crime Branch sleuths posed as job aspirants and surveyed the premises, while another set mingled with the staff at a paan stall to gain inside info...
While 70 call centre employees have been arrested so far, the police are on the hunt for the five main accused who hold the key to the mastermind sitting abroad
Had they been able to raid the call centre at Mira Road last Friday, they would have caught the five main accused, who are absconding, said Thane Crime Branch officers. Sleuths said they had to postpone the raid to Tuesday as information about it had leaked out, leading to the call centre being kept closed on Friday.
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“After 15 days of groundwork, we were all set to raid on Friday. But it looks like they had been tipped off about it and, hence, the office was closed. Then came the weekend. We let Monday pass to lull them into a false sense of security and resume regular operations. On Tuesday, we raided. But the five main accused gave us the slip — Akhilesh Singh, Ali and Jimmy, who operated from Mira Road and would have led us to Shaggy and Tapesh, who operated from Ahmedabad and were in contact with the accused pulling the strings from the UK. Their arrest is what will lead us to the mastermind,” said an officer.
He added that it is suspected that the racket has been going on in Ahmedabad since the last two years and a team is expected to leave for the city within a few hours to hunt for the accused allegedly hiding there.
After getting information about the call centre and the racket being run from there, an assistant inspector with the Thane Crime Branch went for an interview there posing as a job-seeker.
The job hunt
“Our officer, who’s in his early 30s, had a look inside the premises, the working atmosphere, the floors, etc. He also made a note of the number of people working there and where they would escape from in case of a raid. Accordingly, we prepared the team,” said the officer.
Before the raid, plain-clothed officers also kept a watch on the premises from a distance. “We targeted the food and cigarette stalls outside the call centre during break time. For more than 15 days, we stood there, loudly talking amongst ourselves about unemployment and the desperate search for a job. That’s how we struck up conversations with the employees, on the pretext of inquiring about vacancies,” added the officer.
“We warmed up to them and got information and confirmation on the illegality going on inside.”
More complaints pour in
During interrogation, the police found out that the callers used to make calls to Australia and England during the day and the US at night. More US nationals who have been cheated have started approaching the Thane police after coming to know about the unearthing of the scam.
“We received emails and calls from some of those who were cheated. We are taking everything as proof,” said Parambir Singh, Commissioner of Police, Thane. Sources also claimed that a woman died of a heart attack during one such call; the Thane police are yet to verify the claim.
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