CID busts call centre racket, 16 arrested

Kolkata: The state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has busted a call centre racket, that used to dupe people by offering woman companions.

On Thursday evening a CID team conducted a raid at the call centre which was operating from a rented premise and arrested 16 women.

During the search, police seized a substantial number of SIM cards and mobile phones which were being used to call the victims. According to CID officials, since last few months detectives were receiving inputs about a call centre which was being operated from somewhere in the northern fringes of the city to cheat people by promising to send women as companion against money.

While gathering intelligence, police got some mobile phone numbers which were being used for the purpose.

After gathering details of those mobile numbers, a CID team found that the call centre was being operated from Madhyamgram area.

Meanwhile, few complaints were also registered in several police stations where it was alleged that the victims were asked to deposit money in some bank accounts in order to get women companionship. But after paying the amount, all communication from the call centre used to cease.

During the investigation, detectives located the call centre and kept a strict vigil on it for the last few days. During the vigil, police discovered that only women were running the call centre.

Police suspect that despite the fact that the call centre was being run by the women, the mastermind of the racket is someone else. There is also a chance that more than one person is involved in running the racket. The arrested women have been remanded to 7 days police custody.