The city police’s cybercrime wing has learnt that at least 30 Australians have been contacted and some of them duped by some men and women in Kolkata through at least two fraudulent call centres, an officer said.
One of the call centres was in Behala and the other in Garfa. Officers in the city police said they had approached their counterparts in the Australian federal police to connect with the victims, who had lost money from their bank accounts, and record their statements. The suspects who worked at the Behala and Garfa call centres allegedly called the Australians posing as representatives of an electricity company or an internet-based service provider.
“We located the kingpins. Now, they are in police custody,” said a senior officer of the cybercrime cell at Lalbazar.
The three alleged kingpins have been identified as Wasim Akram, Javed Iqbal and Aurangzeb Khan.
A few weeks ago, the city police had got in touch with at least two US nationals who were duped by online fraud gangs in Kolkata. The two elderly victims agreed to depose before a court in Kolkata through video-conferencing and their statements were recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC.
“In the majority of the cases where the victims are abroad, we fail to get their statements or complaints. It becomes difficult to proceed with the investigation in the absence of a complaint from the victim. Now, we have been able to contact multiple victims staying abroad,” said an officer of the rank of assistant commissioner.
Kolkata police have arrested many suspects in the past year who allegedly duped people from call centres. Some of them got bail as there were no complaints against them.
An officer at Lalbazar said they would move Calcutta High Court for cancellation of the bail and to seek police custody of the accused.