A man was arrested from Garden Reach early on Tuesday for allegedly being part of a racket that was operating from Entally and Beniapukur and cheating US nationals, police said.
Officers of the cyber cell of Kolkata police said they arrested Mehran Parvez, 24, a resident of Ismail Street in Entally, early on Tuesday for his alleged involvement in a call centre that was allegedly duping people overseas.
The Telegraph had earlier reported about a US national named George Albert Schlifkin, who lives in Newark, Delaware, and how he was saved from being cheated out of $10,000 after Kolkata police alerted the FBI about a suspected racket in Kolkata that was allegedly trying to dupe the person. Two persons were arrested in this case last month.
Parvez has been arrested in connection with the same case, the police said.
An officer said they had learnt from the FBI that at least three other US nationals have been cheated out of their money by the same group.
A senior officer in the cyber cell said: “The FBI has also informed us that other victims of this fraud racket included Jordan S. Hendin from Maplewood, New Jersey; Randall Winston of Los Angeles, California; and Larry Branman, also from Los Angeles, California. Together they lost $60,800 which is around Rs 50 lakh.”
The officer said they would try to get the statements of the three victims whose money had been fraudulently transferred into other accounts and then transferred to India through the hawala network.
Till now Kolkata police have been able to record the statement of two foreigners in a separate case, where they were cheated through call centres operating in the city.
Bidhannagar police have also received statements of five victims from the US who were cheated through call centres in Salt Lake.
“It is vital to be able to contact the victim who has lost the money. Without the statement of the victim and proof of the online transfer the case gets weakened in the long run,” said the officer at Kolkata police headquarters Lalbazar.
Held for ‘snatching’ pedestrian’s phone
A 27-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly snatching a smartphone from a woman who was walking back home in Salt Lake’s Baisakhi.
Rajat Jaiswal was arrested based on a complaint the woman lodged on June 19 that said a biker had screeched to a halt beside her and snatched her phone while she was talking on it, police said.
“The biker had stalked her for some time. When she reached a relatively deserted stretch, he rode up to her from behind, snatched the phone and sped away,” the police said.
An officer of the Bidhannagar East police station said they scanned CCTV footage and spotted a bike at high speed riding towards one of Salt Lake’s exits. “The biker’s clothes and build matched the description in the complaint,” he said.
“We zeroed in on the registration plate and traced him through it. We sent a team to question him and then he was arrested,” the officer said.
A Salt Lake court sent him to police remand for four days.