On Saturday, September 12, 2020, the Mumbai Crime Branch busted a call centre racket in the city, which was involved in fake and illegal immigration services.
Reports state that some people at the firm were posing themselves as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officers and extorting money from the people in America and Canada, by threatening them with regards to penalty involved in financial matters. As per reports, the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU), on August 29, arrested one person from Malad. A thorough interrogation with him led to several others involved in the call centre racket, which was operating out Marve road in the locality.
Five call centres were raided by the Unit XI and CIU teams and six members - Nitin Rane (42), Ozair Sayyad (29), Ganeshsingh Rajput (27), Faizan Balim (23), Zishan Ansari (21), and Mohammed Shahbaz Koripodi - were arrested by the officials, and this event continued till Saturday morning.
Addressing the same, the officers related with the case confirmed that the members posed as immigration officials and called citizens in the US and Canada. They would ask them to pay the money owed, failing which they would threaten them with going behind the bars, penalty and deportation. All the numbers used in this case were obtained through illegal channels. Some of the members were also involved in selling drugs and medicines.
Authorities further added that the investigation and arrest were conducted despite the coronavirus outbreak, however, social distancing guidelines were followed. The operation was successful, as the team found a total of 107 people ( 81 men and 26 women) at the call centre during the raid.
Members operating this unit were booked under relevant sections and six accused will remain police custody until Friday.
Reports also state that two people involved in the case were also arrested earlier for running an illegal call centre in Delhi. Arif Abdul Rashid (24) and Sujhud Suhelhud (25) are both residents of Delhi and have deceived hundreds of job seekers. They offered people high-paying jobs but asked money to complete the offer letter and other formalities. The issue came to light after a woman lodged a complaint regarding the same, as she had paid INR 40,000 on being asked and offered the job.
Officials have seized Smartphones, laptops, illegal database and other devices from the team. Information regarding the same was by the officers of the Crime Branch Unit of the Mumbai Police.
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