Forty people have been arrested on the charge of running an unauthorised call centre on Elliot Road that allegedly targeted Australian nationals, police said.
An officer of Calcutta police said the raid was conducted on Sunday based on information that a fraudulent call centre was running on Elliot Road.
“We have seized 89 monitors and multiple handsets from the call centre. It was operational in the garb ofproviding customer care service of an e-commerce company. They were targeting Australian nationals,” said the officer.
In such cases, where the victims are located outside India, it becomes difficult for the police to get their statements or a complaint from them.
“We have seized the monitors and the database from where the victims can be identified. The process of identification has begun,” said the officer.
A few weeks ago, Calcutta police have been able to contact two victims staying abroad and recorded their statement before a magistrate in a city court through video conferencing.
Metro reported on Monday that Bidhannagar police, too, have been able to establish contact with five American nationals who have been cheated out of their money by gangs operating from call centres.
“It is extremely important to identify the victims and record their statements. That strengthens the merit of the case and helps in the conviction of the accused. People who get arrested in connection with running fraudulent call centres often get bail because of lack of a specific complaint from the victim and end up resuming the business,” a senior officer of the rank of assistant commissioner at Lalbazar told this newspaper.