Call centre racket busted in New Town

Kolkata: Bidhannagar Police have busted a fake call centre on Thursday night that was being run from New Town. Police have arrested 10 youths and seized more than 40 mobile phones, including a few smartphones, along with computer and other devices. On Friday, all of them were produced at the Bidhannagar ACJM court following which five of them have been remanded to police custody for six days. Rest were remanded to judicial custody.

According to the police, the call centre was being run from an office space inside a shopping mall adjacent to the City Square ground in New Town. About a month ago, a victim of cyber crime lodged a complaint at the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime police station alleging that he has been duped of Rs 25,672 on the pretext of arranging a loan of Rs two lakh. The complainant received a call from an unknown person some time in August who offered loan against a very low rate of interest and hassle-free disbursement. After being convinced, the complainant was asked to pay the money to a bank account for the purpose of processing fee and other charges to which he agreed.

It is alleged that after depositing the money to the said bank account, the accused person stopped communicating with the complainant. Later, he lodged a complaint. During probe, cops used technical help and tracked down the bank account where the money was credited. The bank account holder, identified as Rohan Nag, was arrested on Thursday evening. After interrogation, police came to know about the call centre and conducted a raid at night. Police said the accused persons were impersonating as officials of several renowned financial institutions that offer loan and other such facilities to customers.