Police said of the 27 people arrested within the case, a minimum of five were foreign nationals, while four are from Delhi. the remainder hail from Ludhiana. a minimum of Rs 14.5 lakh in ‘hawala money’, 22 desktop systems, and 31 mobile phones were recovered from the accused.
The five foreign nationals arrested within the case are from African countries. They were identified as M Rediz from Uganda, Peter Richard from Tanzania, Mezdi from Uganda, Candy from Nairobi, and Kelvin from Harare.
The Ludhiana Police on Thursday arrested 27 people and claimed to possess busted a fake call center which was allegedly being operated from Chandan Towers on Pakhowal road of Ludhiana. Police said that residents living within the US and UK residents were allegedly being duped by members of the decision centres, who often impersonated officialdom .
Police said of the 27 people arrested within the case, a minimum of five were foreign nationals, while four are from Delhi. the remainder hail from Ludhiana. a minimum of Rs 14.5 lakh in ‘hawala money’, 22 desktop systems, and 31 mobile phones were recovered from the accused.
The five foreign nationals arrested within the case are from African countries. They were identified as M Rediz from Uganda, Peter Richard from Tanzania, Mezdi from Uganda, Candy from Nairobi, and Kelvin from Harare.
Addressing a news conference , Rakesh Agrawal, Ludhiana city commissioner , said that the suspects had been duping UK and US residents by posing as officialdom of those countries and threatening to impose heavy penalties on their victims if they refused to cough up money. He said that the decision centre was being operated by four people – Lakhan Abrol, Yatin, Cain Masih and Titus – at a property owned by one Somal Sood.
Agarwal said that investigation into the routine of the suspects has revealed that employees at the decision centre approached UK or US-based citizens through an internet-based calling application and posed as Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, uk officials.
The CP added that the decision centre employees induced fear in their victims by telling them that their identity has been wont to perform tax/insurance frauds in their country and a criminal case would be filed against them. When the victims asked them for a remedy, they were told to transfer some amount to a UK-based account. The CP said that half the conned amount was kept by the UK/USA facilitators, while the remaining was received by the accused through hawala transactions.