The Kalwa police have arrested two men, who were allegedly duping people into paying them huge amounts of money by posing as investment agents and promising to double their money. The accused, both natives of Madhya Pradesh, have made at least ₹1 crore through the scam, officers said.
According to police officials, inquiries were initiated into the matter after Kalwa resident Rajaram Nevaskar registered a complaint on June 22 .
“Mr. Nevaskar got a call from an unidentified man, who convinced him to transfer money to his account saying that his investment would be doubled. He transferred ₹2.16 lakh to the man’s account, after which the man went incommunicado,” Additional Commissioner of Police Anil Kumbhare, Thane Police said.
The police obtained call detail records of the number from which Mr. Nevaskar received the call, and traced its location to Madhya Pradesh. A team was sent to Vijay Nagar in M.P. which, working in coordination with the local police, conducted a raid in a commercial complex.
The police arrested Arvind Chauhan and Tapesh Sharma, and seized 59 hard drives, 23 wireless phones and four cell phones from them from the ‘call centre’ they were operating.
150 employees
“The accused would change SIM cards as soon as a target was conned, which made tracing them challenging. They had around 150 people working for them, all of whom were unemployed and needed a steady income,” Mr. Kumbhare said.
Investigations so far indicate that the racket has been operational since 2016, and the accused have cheated people from across the country. The police are now working on finding out how many people have been conned till date, officers said.
