Fake call centre that duped Noida man of ₹1.62 crore busted, 16 arrested

Police arrested 16 people on Thursday for running a fake call centre for two years and duping a retired general manager of a leading public sector undertaking (PSU) in Noida of ₹1.62 crore.

According to police, the suspects have duped several others as well and the exact number of people is being ascertained.

The complainant, 61-year-old Sudama Prasad Kushwaha, a resident of Sector 75, had approached the Sector 113 police station on May 21, 2022, alleging he was duped by the suspects on the pretext of getting back ₹26 lakh as part of an insurance policy.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (Noida) Ranvijay Singh said the fake call centre was located in Bhopra, Ghaziabad.

“Among those arrested are the gang’s kingpin and 10 women, who worked at the fake call centre,” Singh said, adding that the case has been solved by officers of the Noida Cyber Cell and Sector 113 police station.

“The complainant first received a call from a woman named Sushma Tiwari in 2020. She told him that she is an employee of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority’s (IRDA) Integrated Grievance Management System (IGMS) department and can help him get his money from an old insurance policy back,” he said.

Police lodged a case in the matter and started an investigation. “Acting on documents and evidence provided by the complainant, we launched a probe and found that the gang was operating from Bhopra, Ghaziabad. The gang members had identified themselves as people linked to a bank’s insurance agency and duped the complainant, who had got a life insurance policy from HDFC Bank six or seven years ago,” said the officer.

“The complainant had paid only one instalment for that policy. The gang had somehow procured the insurance data and called up the complainant, telling him that ₹26 lakh are in his account, which can be transferred back to him.

“Starting November 2020, over the last two years, the gang duped the complainant of ₹1.62 crore in instalments of ₹1 lakh or ₹2 lakh on the pretext of getting him his ₹26 lakh back,” Singh said, adding that these instalments were taken on the pretext of various “charges” that the victim was asked to pay.

Police said the gang cheated people by assuring them they could help recover the money of the policies they had only paid one instalment for. They added they lodged an FIR against the gang at the Noida Sector 113 police station under Indian Penal Code Section 420 (cheating) and under provisions of the Information Technology Act.

The police have recovered 16 mobile phones, one laptop and ₹1.50 lakh cash from the possession of the gang.

Police identified those arrested as Sonu Kumar, the gang’s kingpin, Rohit Kataria, Ashwani Kumar, Rahul Singh, Nilesh Saxena, Ajay Kumar, Sandhya Kumar, Chanchal, Sanjana Bajpayee,, Shruti Kumar, Anjali, Mohini Singh, Kesar Saxena, Chanchal Gupta, Priyanka and Barkha Singh.

Among those arrested, most are residents of Ghaziabad, while some are from Delhi and Faridabad, the police added.

Additional DCP Singh said the gang is understood to have been operating for the last two years but a detailed background check on its activities is underway.

The police have also got to know that some gang members had purchased properties with the money duped from various people, and details of all such assets and bank accounts are also being checked, he added.