15 held for hoodwinking around 500 investors through fake call centre

The Uttar Pradesh police has arrested 15 people from a fake call centre in Ghaziabad for allegedly duping hundreds of people by promising huge returns on their investment, an official said on Sunday.

The arrests were made on Saturday 8 pm when the police raided the fake call centre in Indirapuram here, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Aparna Gautama said.

The accused used to take money from people promising to multiply the amount through investment in insurance policies, credit market and equities, police said.

Thirty-six mobile phones, 28 debit cards, nine Aadhaar cards, seven PAN cards, nine cheque books, four voter ID cards and Rs 6.3 lakh cash were seized during the raid, the ASP said.

The main accused, Sonu, told the police that they received the investment amount in different accounts and have so far cheated around 500 people.

The police action followed after one of the victims, Sardar Harjit Singh of Punjab's Bhatinda, lodged a complaint at Surajpur police station in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar district.

The accused took a huge amount of money from Singh and promised good returns through investment.

They were sent to jail after a case was registered against them under sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66 of Information Technology Act, the ASP added.