Fraudster extorts posing as Income Tax officer, caught

A 24-year-old assistant sales manager with a Noida-based call centre has been arrested for achieving his sales targets by allegedly forcing customers to buy insurance plans.

Police said he would pose as an Income Tax officer and threaten potential customers of raids if they did not buy the plans.

Police in Dadra and Nagar Haveli had contacted their counterparts in Delhi for assistance when it was learnt that accused Rohit Kumar was hiding in Delhi or nearby areas. One of his victims had contacted the police in Dadra and Nagar Haveli on being duped by him.

Delhi Police’s Crime Branch said in a release the arrest was a joint effort between the police teams of the two Union Territories.

Police said they suspect Rohit to have duped gullible customers across the country. While he would allegedly threaten some customers with raids, he would promise extra but false bonus on insurance policies to some others.

Rohit told police he graduated from a Shahjahanpur college and then came to Delhi in 2012, and worked at various call centres. He began indulging in the fraud activities after joining a call centre in Noida that provided its services to various insurance companies.

Police said Rohit was under constant pressure to meet deadlines of selling a certain number of insurance plans. It was then that he devised a plan to scare customers into buying the plans.

He would call the customers and claim that he was an assistant commissioner with the Income Tax Department and posted in Hyderabad. He would threaten them with dire consequences, including Income Tax raids at their homes, police said.

Delhi Police were contacted on November 18. His hideout was traced to Sahibabad in Ghaziabad and a raid conducted. But he had learnt of police’s impending arrival and fled to his hometown in Shahjahanpur on Monday.