Con call centre busted in Shah-e-Alam, 3 held

Ahmedabad: Crime branch sleuths busted a con call centre run at MS Corner near Shah-e-Alam Tollnaka on Thursday afternoon.
Three accused, Amjadkhan Pathan, 26, of Rasulabad; Arbaz Khan, 26, of Rakhial and Mohammed Ekan Shaikh, 23, of Astodia; were arrested while two others, Dilnawaz Syed and Suzan alias Guru, are on the run. The call centre was in operation for about a month.

Additional deputy commissioner of police, crime branch, Rajdeepsinh Jhala, said they have seized computers and other devices needed to run a call centre from Shop No. 209, 210 and 211.

“We have formed teams to nab the absconding accused,” Jhala said.

Inspector Rajesh Suvera, who led the raiding team, said the accused used to cheat American citizens, calling them up through a magic jack application which would show American numbers on the victim’s cell phones.

“They used to offer them pay-day loans and on get them to make payments on the pretext of verification charge and loan agreement fees using I-Tunes cards. The accused then used to redeem the I-Tunes cards through their accomplices and convert the money into Indian currency,” said Suvera.

Got leads from the US

Crime branch officials said the accused would buy data on US citizens from their accomplices in US. “They then used these leads to call US citizens,” said a crime branch official.

Worked at call centres earlier

Crime branch officials said Amjad and Arbaz earlier used to work in call centres. Arbaz has been arrested earlier by Railway police in a case of mobile theft.