The Bidhannagar police have reached out to at least five US nationals, with the help of the FBI and other American agencies, who have allegedly been cheated out of their money by gangs operating from call centres in Salt Lake, officers said.
Officers in the Bidhannagar commissionerate said they got the statements of five victims with the help of the FBI and other agencies there and were in the process of getting their statements recorded before a magistrate in Kolkata, under Section 164 of the CrPC, through video conferencing.
Statements recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 can be treated as evidence during trial.
Bidhannagar police commissioner Gaurav Sharma told The Telegraph: “We are making all efforts to tie up all loose ends... and have received warm response and assistance from the FBI and other US agencies that have strengthened our case.”
Gangs operating out of eight call centres in Salt Lake have allegedly cheated the five Americans out of more than Rs 8 crore.
“When people staying abroad are cheated and they lodge a complaint with their local law enforcement agencies, it becomes difficult for the foreign police to track the origin of the crime in a different country. Similarly, when we come across an illegal call centre here and find out that they are cheating people staying outside India, it becomes a challenge to locate any victim,” said an officer of the Bidhannagarpolice.
As regard to the cases in which the five Americans have been cheated out of their money, the officer said: “We have received the statements of the five victims through the office of General Council, Department of State, Pennsylvania, and the FBI. We are in the process of contacting the victims through proper channels so that we can get their statements recorded before a magistrate in a court in Kolkata under Section 164 of the CrPC through video conferencing.”
“We are trying to fix a date when we can apply for recording the victims’ statements before a magistrate through video conferencing,” the officer said.
The police said the eight call centres were run by Shashi Gaurav Soni and his brother Saurabh Soni, who were arrested in March.
One of the victims, a doctor, has reportedly said that the callers had told her that her medical licence had been used for “unauthorised prescription of drugs”. They allegedly threatened to make the “fact” public unless she paid up.