Two directors of a call centre in New Town were arrested on Saturday for cheating, police said.

They ran the call centre from the second floor of the Avant Garde building in New Town’s Action Area I, an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.

Gopi Sharma, 29, and Amit Mondal, 31, were arrested based on a complaint lodged by Howrah resident Abhijit Ganguly, who was duped of over Rs 80,000, the officer said.

Employees of the call centre would call up people promising high returns for reactivating lapsed insurance policies against payment.

Ganguly had received a call and the caller introduced himself as the regional manager of a reputed insurance broking firm. The caller asked Ganguly if he had an insurance policy that had lapsed or was dormant. Ganguly did have one such policy and the caller said he would help secure a large sum by “reactivating” it.

“Ganguly met Sharma and Mondal at the New Town call centre where they asked him to purchase a new policy for

Rs 29,900. They promised to help him get more than a lakh for the dormant policy and Ganguly gave them the money,” the officer said. He met them again a few days later and paid them an additional Rs 50,000.

“Both times, Ganguly had asked for cash receipts but wasn’t given any. When they called him a third time asking for more money, he grew suspicious,” the officer said.

Ganguly then lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police station in Salt Lake.

An officer who was part of the team that raided the New Town office said that the men had more than 20 employees who would make calls to dupe people.

Arms haul

Two persons were arrested and 15kg of explosives, four unregistered 7-mm pistols, eight magazines and over 100 rounds of bullets were seized in Howrah late on Friday.