Malad West Fake Call Centre Raided After Duping 22 People of Rs 14.83 Lakh
Bangur Nagar police have raided a fake call centre operating from Marve Road in Malad West and booked 19 individuals for allegedly defrauding 22 people of Rs 14.83 lakh by promising fake lifetime franchises of major courier and e-commerce companies.
Acting on a tip-off on September 2, police teams carried out a raid at the premises of M Fins Services Private Limited, located near Nutan School in Malad West. During the search, officers found several men and women making phone calls to citizens.
According to police, the accused contacted people via phone calls and WhatsApp, falsely claiming that their firm held official contracts with major brands including Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Blue Dart, DTDC, and BigBasket. They told prospective investors that putting money into these brands would ensure high returns and lifetime franchises, collecting money on these false promises before duping them.
Investigators established that Sohanlal Gupta was the owner of the establishment. Further scrutiny of the operation revealed that the firm had a contract with only one company, despite claiming affiliations with multiple major retail and logistics corporations.
During the search, the police seized 17 mobile phones used by telecallers, eight laptops, Excel sheets, and documents concerning franchise agreements. Investigators also found records detailing the names, contact numbers, email IDs, and payment amounts of victims who had transferred funds. Additional goods valued at Rs 2.30 lakh were confiscated from the premises.
When police contacted several individuals listed in the seized records, the victims confirmed that they had neither received the promised franchises nor got their money back. They also reported that the accused stopped taking their phone calls once the payments were made.
Police booked 19 individuals: Santosh Gupta, Chirag Shah, Aishwarya Yeshu, Fatima Sayyaid, Kasim Ansari, Kaif Kazi, Rakesh Gupta, Arthi Nadar, Aryan Ansari, Rohit Kirekar, Sheetal Sharma, Priyanka Kushwah, Afrin Shaikh, Manikumar Gandan, Sundaram Jha, Mehak Khan, Aniket Pawar, Vandesh Gawade, and Parth Rajput. A case was registered under Section 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and other relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act.
Investigators are currently examining the financial transactions of the accused to determine if more people were defrauded in the operation.
