Police bust fake call centre near Kolkata, seize Rs 4 cr cash
Darpan News Desk IANS, 08 Mar, 2023 02:27 PM
Kolkata, March 8 (IANS) Following a surprise raid by the officers of the Bidhannagar Police Commiserate on Wednesday evening, unaccounted cash worth around Rs 4 crore was seized from a fake call centre in the Rajarhat-Newtown area on the outskirts of Kolkata.
A police officer said that the exact amount seized was a little over Rs 3.82 crore.
"Apart from the cash, gold and silver jewellery in substantial quantities as well as several high-end premium brand wrist watches were also recovered from the fake call centre. The valuation of the seized items is yet to be done," the officer said.
Apart from that, four high-end premium vehicles were also seized from outside the call centre.
The police have arrested six persons in this connection, out of whom two are residents of Liluah in Howrah district, two are from Maharashtra and one from Gujarat. The police suspect that besides running the fake call centre, the arrested persons were also involved in illegal hawala transactions.
The officer said that through this call centre, these persons mainly targeted elderly citizens in different parts of the globe.
"We suspect that the arrested persons are part of an international forgery racket. We will interrogate them to collect information on their partners and masterminds in this illegal trade," the officer said.
Lt Gen Aujla, an alumnus of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, was commissioned in December 1987 and has had an illustrious military career spanning 35 years during which he has held varied prestigious command, staff and instructional appointments.
The area around the Intelligence Bureau office has been sealed and investigation is in progress. A bomb disposal and forensic squads have been positioned at the spot. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann spoke to Director General of Police V.K. Bhawra and sought details about the incident.
Notably, the police detained several people, including party workers, who were not allowing the SDMC to carry out the demolition drive at Shaheen Bagh. After the agitation was quelled, the bulldozer moved forward to demolish the illegal encroachment, an iron structure in front of a building. It is at this juncture that Khan reached the spot and was seen speaking to the officials.
Punjab shares a 553-km barbed-wire fenced international border with Pakistan which is under the vigil of nearly 135 BSF battalions. The drug network operates along the Afghanistan-Pakistan-India route.
Police are looking at this angle. The incident took place near Kengeri at 1 a.m. and the injured were shifted to nearby hospitals. According to the police, the bus had first hit the 4-feet tall road divider and then rammed into the Namma Metro Pillar number 545.
Chairing a meeting of the Special Task Force (STF) team led by its chief Harpreet Sidhu here, Mann said neither political persons nor officers would be spared if found conniving with the drug mafia. He told the police officers to work freely without any political pressure with a sharpened focus to make Punjab a drug-free state.
