Fake call centre busted, B'luru man among 37 held

Assam police on Tuesday claimed to have busted a fake call centre run by a man from Gujarat, allegedly cheating and collecting money from many in the US.

Based on a complaint lodged on April 20, CID of Assam police conducted a raid in a house in Guwahati and picked up 37 persons including nine girls for the investigation into the allegation.

One of the accused picked up by the police hails from North Bengaluru.

According to police, the illegal firm, which started its operation about a year ago used to work during nights (day in the US) and made calls to US citizens, impersonating as US government officials. "They had a database of many citizens in the US including phone numbers and social security numbers. They identified persons who were accused of tax failure and threatened of action. After a brief interaction, they demanded money to sort out the cases. Many of them fell victim to their trap and deposited money. The information collected so far has revealed that they collected around Rs 50 lakh every month. We hope to get further information during interrogation and examination of their computers and documents," additional director general of police, CID, L R Bishnoi said here.

Police seized 40 central processing units of computers, pen drives, one laptop, 32 mobile phones and other documents for investigation.

Rajesh Khan alias Rajesh Mukherjee, a resident of Gujarat is suspected to be the kingpin of the racket.

Those picked up included 13 from Meghalaya, one from Andhra Pradesh, one from North Bengaluru, one from Delhi, one from Nagaland, two from Assam and one from Gujarat.

"This is a pure case of cheating, extortion and illegal collection of money. There is a huge racket," said a police statement.