Rs 100 shortage halts US call centre probe

A Thane police team investigating the call centre scam returned from Gujarat as they did not have enough Rs 100 notes with them.

The Centre’s demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes has had an adverse impact on an unlikely set of people — officers of the Thane police’s crime branch who are probing the US call centre scam that took place at Mira Road.

Not only did the Thane police have to recall their team from Ahmedabad on Wednesday, but they also had to arrange for the stay of witnesses who had been called to the city to record their statements.

Confirming the development, a police source said that a team of its officers was camping in Ahmedabad as part of the police probe into the US call centre scam.

A senior police official said, “We called back our team which was in Ahmedabad. Owing to the demonetisations of currency, we knew they would face problems. They had money and ATM cards but since all ATMs would be closed for two days, we decided to call them back till the situation is normal. Our team will start working on the case once the currency issue is resolved.”

Another police official from Thane said even the witnesses asked to give statements in the case were facing monetary problems. “We had called in a few witnesses from Ahmedabad on Tuesday to take down their statements. As we were unable to complete recording of the statements on the same day, we asked them to stay back in Thane for a few days. The witnesses told us that hotel managers were not accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from them, so they would like to go back. We, therefore, had to arrange for their stay and food.”

Giving details about the progress in the investigation, another police official said the Thane team had gone to Ahmedabad to gather evidence against the mastermind of the scam Shahagir Thakkar, who is absconding, and some of his associates. “The team had a few telephone numbers and details of certain associates of Thakkar,” said the official.

The Thane police has been investigating the call centre scam since October 4 after its crime branch officials raided four call centres in Mira Road. More than 750 employees are being questioned for an alleged online fraud where employees posed as officials from the American Internal Revenue Services (IRS) and extorted millions from US citizens citing tax irregularities.

A Thane police team said the roots of the fraud are in Ahmedabad as the mastermind of the scam Thakkar had been handling his business from there. In the course of investigation, a few persons revealed names and mobile numbers of the alleged close aides of Thakkar. The Thane team which was sent to Ahmedabad had narrowed down on a few suspects who were running the scam centres along with Sagar, but had to suspend investigation midway because of currency demonetisations.