A Land Rover Defender SE — an SUV with a Rs 1 crore-plus price tag — a Land Rover Discovery Sport, a kilo of gold, cash, deeds of flats and plots, and a revolver and six bullets were seized from two Howrah men who were arrested for allegedly running multiple fraudulent call centres and duping people in India and abroad, police said.
Shashi Gaurav Soni and his brother Saurabh Soni were arrested on Sunday after the police found out that they were among the top players in a call centre racket in the city, a senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.
“We have arrested the men and seized two Land Rover SUVs, gold, cash and property deeds, among other things. These men used to run multiple call centres on a large scale,” said Gaurav Sharma, police commissioner of Bidhannagar.
The police sent a team to the Sonis’ house in Liluah in Howrah district after their names apparently surfaced while questioning four men from Ahmedabad and New Delhi who were recently arrested during raids on call centres in New Town and Salt Lake, an officer said. “Based on the statements of these men, we mounted a surveillance on the two brothers in Liluah,” said the officer.
The Land Rover Defender SE seized by the police. The Telegraph
The police have sealed four call centres — one in Midland Park in Sector V and three in Salt Lake’s CL and BH blocks.
More than 120 computers allegedly used to make VoIP calls and is equipped with anti-tracking software were seized from the call centres.
The police have also sealed a paying guest accommodation in Salt Lake’s BG Block that was taken on rent by the Sonis for their workers.
“This was an extremely well-oiled system and even the callers were awarded bonuses and incentives depending on how much money they could extract from their victims,” the officer said.
“We are going to request block committees and residents’ associations of housing complexes to keep an eye out for such offices in their areas,” police chief Sharma told The Telegraph on Monday.
According to Sharma, there has been a change in the way fraudulent call centres are run. Now, owners and operators of call centres are moving out of conventional offices in Sector V and NewTown and shifting to bungalows in Salt Lake and flats in New Town and Rajarhat.
The Soni brothers have been charged under various sections of the IPC. They were produced in a court in Salt Lake and sent to police remand.