Investigation of Belagavi fake call centre case transferred to CID

The State government has transferred investigation of the case of some people running a fake call centre in Belagavi to defraud U.S. residents, to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The Cyber, Economic and Narcotic Offences Police arrested 33 people during a raid on the call centre on Bauxite Road here recently.

Most of the accused, 28 men and five women, were from other States, including Gujarat, Bihar and West Bengal.

Initial investigation by CEN Police found that the centre employed youth to impersonate enforcement agents of various U.S. agencies. They threatened the victims and collected money or valuables in the form of gift cards.

A case was registered by the CEN Police under various provisions of BNS and IT Act.

Investigators said that they have found proof of 90 foreign nationals being duped.

“These ‘agents’ from Belagavi called them using Voice over Internet Protocol, falsely claimed to be U.S. employees and forced them to pay up. They threatened them with legal action, much like the digital arrest scams prevalent in India. One of the reasons it is being shifted to the CID is that it requires deep technical knowledge. Secondly, investigators need to work with international agencies like INTERPOL and thirdly, the accused are from various States. We will need to coordinate with police from those States,” a senior officer said.

Assistant Commissioner of Police J. Raghu, Inspector of Police B.R. Gaddekar and other officers recovered 38 mobile phones, 37 laptops, three WiFi routers and some documents during the raid.

Ejaz Khan, owner of Kumar Hall where the call centre was set up, was arrested later.

Police Commissioner Borase Bhushan Gulabrao then wrote to the Director-General and Inspector-General of Police seeking the transfer of the case. The senior police officer then cleared it.

The Police Commissioner said that the cyber and forensic capabilities of the CID officers and their experience in transnational investigations will expose a larger network behind this scam.