Court requests Delhi Police chief to look into illegal call centres in city on priority

NEW DELHI, (PTI): A court here has requested the Delhi Police Commissioner to look into the matter of illegal call centres mushrooming in the industrial centres of the city “on priority” as they brought a “bad name to the country at the global level.”

The court was hearing the bail application of accused Kapil Taneja who was allegedly running a fake call centre in Okhla Phase I and cheating the US residents.

The accused and his team of 12 telecallers committed total fraud of more than 1.56 lakh US Dollars (around Rs 1.25 crore )and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was interviewing the victims, the prosecution said.

“Hence in the light of the facts and circumstances … no case for grant of bail is made out at this stage. The application is accordingly dismissed,” Additional Sessions Judge Surya Malik Grover said in an order dated November 25.

The judge further said that he was constrained to observe that a number of cases pertaining to illegal call centres mushrooming in industrial areas of the city were surfacing and these centres had become hubs of illegal activities.

“Most of the call centres are operating at the international level, and hence their spurious activities, not only cause monetary loss and mental agony to innocent people, who lose their hard-earned money, but bring a bad name to the country on a global level,” the judge added.

There was “absolutely no check” upon these illegal centres and in most cases, the call centre owners were not arrested “for the reasons best known to the investigating officer (IO)” or remained absconding, the judge said.

“The end result is that the real beneficiary of the crime is still at large, while the common man is suffering and it is time that the regulatory mechanism on licensing of call centres is put in place so that spurious activities are curtailed,” the judge said.

The judge also directed that a copy of the order be sent to the Commissioner of Police, “with a request to look into the matter on priority.” According to the prosecution, the accused along with his associates extorted or cheated money from foreign nationals by making them believe that their online accounts were hacked and they can be implicated in false cases of money laundering and child pornography.

Some victims were put in fear of being found involved in downloading child pornography, which can be punished with a sentence of up to 20 years under US federal laws, the prosecution said.

The crime branch had registered an FIR against Taneja for various offences, including sections 389 (putting a person in fear of accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code along with the provisions of the IT Act. (PTI)