Guwahati: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday busted a Fake Call Centre near Zoo-Narengi road in Guwahati.
The prime accused identified as Rajesh Khan Alias Rajesh Mukherjee alias Rajesh Bhai was picked by the sleuths of the CID near Guwahati Nehru Park. Basically, he is a resident of Ahmadabad in Gujarat.
As per CID officials, the accused had changed his name from Rajesh Khan to Rajesh Mukherjee after Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat.
It is to be noted that the accused had booked a house on rent near Hotel Highway Palace opposite Audi showroom at Jalukbari by-pass in Guwahati. CID team based on information tracked down the location, but the accused managed to escape from the spot. However, he was arrested today afternoon.
The sleuths of the CID team also arrested at least 37 persons including nine women on the charge of cheating people in the name of an "unauthorized" call centre. On May 21, 2019, the sleuths conducted an operation at a call centre – Avenir Pvt. Ltd.
Addressing a press conference in Guwahati, the CID officials said, "As many as 37 persons including nine women and 28 men have been arrested for allegedly involved in making fraud calls to US-based customers to cheat them."
The sleuths also recovered 22 monitors, 40 CPUs, two pen drives, one laptop and 32 mobile phones including other objectionable items from the office.
Meanwhile, a case (No CID PS 12/2019) under sections 120B, 419, 420, 468, 471 and 384 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 has been registered against the accused.
It may be mentioned that the call centre has a database of over seven lakh American citizens and looted around Rs 50 lakh. The company was in operation in Guwahati since February 2019.