A ‘senior director’ of a call centre in Sector V was arrested on Thursday on charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy among others.
Anirban Mukherjee, 30, who used to run the call centre from Advantage Tower was arrested at the airport after he got off a flight from Goa, an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.
Mukherjee, hailing from Ichhapore in North 24-Parganas district, was arrested on the basis of a complaint lodged by Dipti Mahapatra, 70, a doctor from Purba Medinipur, who was allegedly duped of nearly Rs 24 lakh.
Employees of the call centre used to call people and promise them high returns for re-activating lapsed insurance policies against payment.
Mahapatra had received a call where the caller introduced himself as the regional manager of an insurance broking firm. He enquired if she had a lapsed or dormant insurance policy. She did have one and gave out the details after he managed to convince her he would help secure a large sum by “reactivating” it.
“The elderly woman received multiple calls where she was asked to deposit money to various accounts. She kept paying,” an officer said.
The callers had told her to pay by citing policy charges, re-activation fees, GST amount and various other charges, the officer said.
An officer who was part of the team that had raided the Sector V office said that Mukherjee employed more than a dozen callers who were making calls to dupe people.
“We have also seized a cellphone, seven debit cards and Rs 50,000 in cash from him,” said the officer.