Call centre scam: Sagar Thakkar sent to police custody till April 13

Mumbai: Sagar Thakkar, the mastermind of the call centre scam, was sent to police custody till April 13 by a local court on the day he surrendered to the police after his arrival from Dubai. Thakkar is said to have returned voluntarily after he realised that India was set to issue a red-corner notice against him. Thakkar had also travelled to Thailand. He holds a Dubai residency permit and revealed that recently the US agencies tried to get his custody but a board in Dubai ruled that there wasn’t evidence to restrain him.

Speaking to mediapersons, Parambir Singh, commissioner of police (Thane), said that 25-year-old Thakkar voluntarily decided to come to India and surrendered to the Immigration officers in the country without a fuss when they detained him based on a look out notice issued by the Thane police. Thakkar, has been absconding since October after three call centre owned and run by him in Mira-Bhayander belt were raided and hundreds of employees arrested. Thakkar was accused of operating a multi million-dollar scam, which duped thousands of US citizens. The scam involved call centre employees calling up US citizens posing as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials and accusing them of not paying dues and asking them to immediately deposit a certain fine to avoid arrest.

“While Thakkar is an Indian national, he also holds a Dubai residency permit and hence escaped to Dubai. He stayed there for sometime and also travelled Thailand,” Singh said. He added that Thakkar had been to Dubai recently and was detained by officials based on a red corner notice issued by the United State of America. “But a board set up by Dubai government to look into his case ruled that US did not have enough evidence to gain his custody nor was his travel to be restricted. Hence he was let off. He then learnt that India was also in the process of issuing a RCN and wanted to return and co-operate in the investigation,” he said.

The scam has till date led to the arrest of nearly 400 people and many more are still wanted. Police officers said that during questioning Thakkar gave out two more names, which are being investigated. “A man called Tapesh Gupta allegedly ran the operations here in the city. And we are trying to trace him,” said Singh. When questioned about how he worked the scam, Thakkar allegedly said that he got into the business after he realised some of his friends were doing it.

cops awestruck by thakkar’s knowledge

Dressed in just loose pants and a T-shirt, Thakkar comes across as just another regular youngster. But police officers who are questioning him say that he is very sharp and has immense knowledge about US and Indian laws, policies and data sourcing. He revealed that the call centres were also operating in five other cities beside Mumbai. The scam has its tentacles in various industries including pharma, banking and grants. Police sources revealed that Thakkar had senior police officials in awe of him just an hour into his questioning. “He is completely aware of all laws in the country and in US and knows everything about masking data, procuring and hiding his data footprint. He is the one who trained the first batch of people in his first call centre in Gujarat,” said a police source.

He added that Thakkar’s sister Reema is still in India and they are trying to locate her. “She did not travel with him to Dubai and handled all his accounts. We will question him in detail to get her whereabouts.” The source added that while Thakkar ran only the IRS scam, he has given them information about scams being run in the pharma and banking sector.