IRS extortion racket: Call centres in Guj also under scanner

Crime branch of Thane police, which is probing a massive racket where US-based tax payers were conned by Indian tele-callers posing as tax officers, today told a court here that police had also raided some call centres in Gujarat.
There was a link between the four call centres at Mira Road here which police raided on October 4 and some centres in Gujarat, said Assistant Commissioner of Police Mukund Hatote. He did not elaborate on the police raids conducted in Gujarat.
Seeking further police remand of the accused, he said police had come across monetary transactions of USD 8,95,000.
The police have arrested 71 people till now. Magistrate A B Katte, after hearing the arguments today, remanded 54 of the accused in judicial remand, four persons in police custody till October 13 and 13 men in police custody till October 14.

Hatote told the court that investigators had examined the cell-phones of the accused, which revealed information about financial transactions.
The accused, operating from call centres at Mira Road here, impersonated the Internal Revenue Service officers of US, and conned the tax-payers in that country by telling them that if they did not pay, they would be arrested.

The kingpin of the racket was yet to be arrested and the money trail was to be traced as the investigators believed the ill-gotten money was sent to Gujarat, the ACP said.
(Reopens LGB 5)
Meanwhile, police in Ahmedabad told