Fake call centre offering loans busted in Noida; 11 arrested: PTI

Eleven people, including nine women, were arrested for defrauding people in the name of loans and insurance policies from a call centre here, officials said on Saturday The Noida Police said that the gang had data of 10,000 people.

The gang, operating from a call centre on the fourth floor of a market in Sector 51, was busted on Friday in a joint operation by the Crime Response Team (CRT) and the local Sector 49 police station officials, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Shakti Mohan Avasthy said.

"The action on the bogus call centre was carried out based on local intelligence and confidential information. The accused were targeting people in Delhi NCR under the guise of offering loans and insurance policies. They had data of 10,000 people," Avasthy said.

The police identified those arrested as key accused Ashish Kumar alias Amit and Jitendra Verma alias Abhishek. The nine women arrested are Nisha alias Sneha, Reju alias Divya, Lovely Yadav alias Sweta, Poonam alias Pooja, Aarti Kumari alias Ananya, Kajal Kumari alias Surti, Sarita alias Suman, Babita Patel alias Mahi, and Garima Chauhan alias Sonia.

The police have found a case against them lodged in Ranchi, Jharkhand also, Avasthy said.

"The gang lured people from states outside NCR with promises of high returns through loans and insurance policies. These individuals (women) assist Ashish and Jitendra on a commission basis, receiving their share in cash," a police spokesperson said.

The official further disclosed that they used a PNB bank account rented from a person named Arvind in Karnataka for Rs 10,000 per month, from which the key accused withdrew funds using the ATM card in their possession.

Ashish maintained a black diary recording the financial transactions and shared the profits with his associates based on their contribution, the police spokesperson said.

"Ashish and Jitendra started this fraudulent activity after working for SBI Life Insurance in 2019. They bought data of about 10,000 people from India Mart for Rs 2,500 and began calling people across India, defrauding them under the pretence of offering loans and insurance," the official said.

"This scheme had been operational for over a year, generating crores of rupees, meticulously recorded in the recovered diary," the official added.

The accused were found using mobile phones with SIM cards obtained through fake Aadhaar cards, purchased from vendors willing to sell them for a higher price. These SIM cards were used to hide their identities while targeting unsuspecting victims outside the Delhi NCR, according to the police.

An FIR has been lodged in the case under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the accused were sent to judicial custody after they were produced before a local magistrate's court, the police added.

(PTI)