AHMEDABAD: The four-member committee of IPS officers, which is probing the menace of con call centres in city, has been astonished by facts that keep surfacing. For starters, they learned that the kingpin of the
Thane
con call centre,
Sagar Thakkar
alias Shaggy, 23, used to have a daily turnover going up to hundred of thousand of dollars. Thakkar owns call centres in Noida and Ghaziabad, apart from the centres in Thane and Ahmedabad. Currently, police believe
Shaggy is hiding in Dubai.
What has rattled cops more are strong indications of a nexus between some police officials and con call centres, particularly the role of a top city-based police official.
“The suspected officer had a partnership share of about 30% to 40% in three to four con call centres in the city,” said a police official close to the investigation. “All the three con call centres have now closed down,” he said.
“We are also probing the role of a “vahivatdar” (a person who manages illegal finances of a corrupt police official) and gathering evidence against the police official,” he added. City-based police officials involved in the racket also used to manage the con call centres, when the owners went on tours abroad, said a source in the city police.
Police sources said Thakkar, the con call centre mastermind, had 3,000 callers across India at his disposal. They used to call citizens of the US and extort money posing as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials.
Thakkar owns property, including hotels in Bangkok and US, and also acres of land in Ahmedabad. “Thakkar, a youth from Ahmedabad, led a flamboyant lifestyle, zooming around in luxury cars. He even purchased a luxury car from Virat Kohli, captain of India’s national cricket team,” said a police official.
“We are going to approach the revenue department to identify the land owned by Thakkar in Ahmedabad,” said the police official, adding, “It might prove difficult, as he could have purchased the land in someone else’s name.”