PUNE: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) started a parallel investigation into the fake call centre case involving large-scale financial transactions through cryptocurrencies and online gift cards. An ED team took copies of the FIR and investigation documents from the crime branch officials, who are probing the case. A senior officer with the crime branch told TOI, “The ED has taken all the necessary documents, and we have also shared some details of the case with the Intelligence Bureau (IB) as the case involves large-scale financial transactions within and outside India.”Pune city police raided an illegal call centre facility in Kharadi on the night of May 23 and 24. The police team found that the executives of the call centre were threatening and extorting millions of dollars from US citizens. The call centre executives were threatening the US citizens with digital arrest in cases of narcotics or other fraud by posing as various US law enforcement officials. During the raid, police found 123 persons, including 12 women, in the facility.On May 24, police arrested Sarjitsingh Girawatsingh Shekhawat (26), Abhishekh Ajaykumar Pande (29), Shrimay Paresh Shah (31), Laxman Amarsingh Shekhawat (28), and Aron Arumugan Christian (29), all residents of Kharadi. However, they are natives of Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan and Ahmedabad in Gujarat. These men were operating the call centre.A search for three men, including the two prime suspects in the case, is ongoing. All the 118 call centre executives have been made accused in the case. “Since there were large-scale financial transactions as the call centre was extorting US Dollars 30,000 to US Dollars 40,000 per day, ED has started the probe,” said a senior officer.A senior officer told TOI, “We have also recovered pen drives and other electronic gadgets from the residences of the five suspects. We have also obtained details of some bank accounts, and we will study the money trail in the case.”The call centre was in operation since July 2024, and the agreement to run the call centre from Pune from the hired premises was signed and executed in Jaipur in Rajasthan, police said. The call centre was sourcing the data of US citizens. A senior officer told TOI, “We suspect that some people in the US were selling data to the call centre using the Darkweb to avoid any monitoring by the govt agencies, and the prime suspects used to pay to procure the data.”“We have also seized the written scripts which were given to the call centre executives,” police said.
