Forty-four people, including two ‘directors’ of a call centre, have been arrested in raids conducted by the Bidhannagar commissionerate on alleged fraudulent call centres in Sector V and New Town.
The raids at two call centres were conducted early on Wednesday, a senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.
In New Town, a team from the Eco Park police station arrested 33 at a call centre in Astra Towers — a building that has a mix of offices, restaurants and lounges — in New Town’s Action Area IIC, near Akankha More.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said that the arrested would place calls to people across the country posing as officials of top telecom service providers.
“They would call people and promise huge sums of money if they allowed the installation of cellphone towers on their roofs or empty plots of land,” said the officer. Those who agreed would be asked to send money for “processing charges and licence fees”.
Once they received the payment, the callers would cut off contact with the victims, the officer said.
In another raid, a team from the Sector V police station arrested 11, including two “directors” of a call centre at Merlin Infinite building in DN Block.
Here, the callers would place VOIP calls to people living in the UK and Australia posing as representatives of insurance companies and dupe them.