Raids uncover 4 more fake centres in Maharashtra

THANE: The Thane police on Saturday carried out a fresh raid on four call centres in Kashimira and Naya Nagar areas of Mira Road, following information that these business outsourcing process units too were part of an international organised crime cartel conning people in the US and Europe. One person was detained in the raids.

Interestingly, proprietors and employees of these four call centres had downed shutters on their offices sensing they would be next on the radar, as they too would pose as law enforcement officials and threatened citizens in the US and UK, like the call centres raided on Tuesday. Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Parag Manere confirmed the development.

Information on these rogue call centres was said to have been obtained from employees in the custody of the Thane crime branch, followed by a recce. "We carried out a recce of these call centres on Friday night and raided the call centres on Saturday. But to our surprise there were no staffers and the 24x7 call centre was shut," a police officer said.

The team forced its way into the premises and seized around 250 computer terminals from these four call centres. One person was detained police said, adding the team found 100 hard disks had already been removed. "The magnitude of the scam is huge and we are now conducting a thorough surveillance of all such call centres in Thane, Mira Road and Navi Mumbai to end such criminal activities," a senior police officer told TOI.

TOI was the first paper to report the police raid and criminal operations at three call centres in Mira Road early this week, which led to the arrest of 70 people and notices being served to 630 others. Police are currently noting statements of the 630 employees, based on which they will determine the further course of action against them.