A 5,000-page charge sheet was filed in a special court on Friday in connection with the multi-crore Thane call centre scam, in which the accused had allegedly duped American citizens by posing as officials of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and made them pay by threatening ‘legal action’.
The charge sheet filed by the crime branch before the special court names 82 people as accused in the case, and six others as absconding. Of the 82, most were arrested in the crackdown since the scam was exposed in October and booked under IPC sections 384 (punishment for extortion), 419 (punishment for cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), sections 72(1), 75 of the IT Act and relevant sections of the Indian Telegraph Act.
Police have attached the complaints filed by some US citizens who were allegedly conned along with the statements by several witnesses, to the charge sheet. The fraud was unearthed after crime branch teams raided seven call centres at Mira Road in Thane on October 4-5. The police had registered three FIRs in this connection.
Investigators had earlier said they have identified transactions worth Rs. 25-30 crore in the scam, and that it will take a long time for them to arrive at the actual figure, given the scam’s magnitude. Alleged mastermind Sagar Thakkar alias Shaggy is on the run. On October 16, police arrested Sagar’s alleged mentor, Jagdish Kanani, 33, from Borivali. The con syndicate has spread its tentacles nationwide including in cities like Gurgaon, Ahmedabad and Thane.
Besides Kanani, about 70 directors and key persons of these call centres have been arrested. Special Public Prosecutor Shishir Hiray said the assistance of computer experts was taken to make a watertight case. The modus operandi adopted by the scamsters was to procure data of US citizens through their contacts and then call their potential targets over phone by impersonating IRS officials.
As per police, the call centre employees, trained to speak with an American accent, would allegedly threaten their targets with legal action over some ‘tax issues’, and those who fell prey were asked to make immediate online payments.
The US government had announced the indictment of 61 individuals and entities, including 31 from India, in connection with the scam and had also praised the Thane police for their investigation. An FBI officer had met Thane Police officials in October to share probe details. — PTI
