Two call centres, one in Sector V and the other in Lake Town, have been shut down by Bidhannagar commissionerate.
These call centres would dupe people by promising high returns if they let “telecom companies” use their roofs and plots to set up cellphone towers and by offering them loans at extremely low-interest rates.
In Sector V, a team from Electronics Complex police station conducted a raid at a call centre — V Business Services Pvt Ltd— that was being run from an office on the sixth floor of the Martin Burn Business Park near Technopolis bus stop early on Tuesday.
A senior officer of Bidhannagar commissionerate that made the arrest said these persons would first pose as officials from cellphone network providers and place calls to people across the country.
Sixteen persons, including two “directors” Debo Das and Harini Nath, were arrested from the call centre in Sector V.
After the raid, the police sealed the office.
Posing as officials from cellphone network providers, the arrested persons would call people across the country and enquire if they had a rooftop or an empty plot of land.
They would then convince the person to set up a cellphone tower that would provide a high monthly rent along with a huge one-time payment in advance.
Once any person agreed, then they would convince the victim to pay a “registration fee” and a “no-objection fee” in the name of TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India).
“All the arrested would pose as telecom representatives and used to call people across India, including Assam and dupe them. They had been running the call centre since 2022,” the officer said.
In Lake Town, a call centre that was being run from a residential building in Dakshindari where the callers would pose as officials from different banking and non-banking financial institutions and offer loans at very low-interest rates.
The police raided this call centre late on Monday based on specific information.
Four men and two women have been arrested from the call centre in Lake Town, the officer added.
Laptops, computers, data sheets and cellphones have been seized from the two call centres.