Crime branch busts two fake cell centres, 18 held

Panaji: The crime branch on Wednesday conducted two raids and arrested 18 people for running two fake call centres from Panaji, from where the fraudsters scammed US citizens by pretending to be loan company agents. Police have seized material worth over Rs 1 crore from the fake call centres.

In the first case, crime branch PI Tushar Lotliker said that the centre was being operated from an apartment at St Inez, and that the raid was conducted early on Wednesday, leading to the arrest of Yash Dessai, 29, and Karan Mala, 23, from Gujarat, and Mihir Desai and Sajjan.

They employed Rishav Chowbey, 26, and Dibya Rava, 30, from Assam, Rushit Batham, 28, from Gujarat, Aamir Harun, 34, from Delhi, and Vishvajit Sonawane, 32, from Gujarat.

These employees “procured personal detail of citizens of the US and by using laptop and virtual private network, they contacted the victims by impersonating loan company agents,” officers said. The accused people, said officers, “induced innocent US citizens to pay huge amounts of money in the form of gift cards on the pretext of providing them a loan and instant money”.

Police seized seven laptops, 13 mobile phones, a sedan, and other articles worth Rs 30 lakh.

The second raid was also conducted early on Wednesday by a team led by PI Manguesh Valvaikar at a housing society in Dona Paula.

Police arrested Mahipalsinh Rathod, 23, Shelat Yunusbhai and Rohan Chettiar, 29, from Gujarat, Shubham Desai, 27, from Rajasthan, Santanu Kar, 30, from West Bengal, and Sankalp Kane, 32, Satyam Singh, 22, Bijesh Rane, 40, Vilas Utekar, 26, and Akshit Patil, 26, from Maharashtra.

Police said that just as in the first case, they posed as loan company agents and through an app, called US citizens. They too induced these citizens to pay huge amounts of money in the form of gift cards and promised loans and instant cash. Eight laptops, 11 mobile phones, and three vehicles, all worth Rs 64.7 lakh, were seized. Further investigation is on.
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