Bengaluru police bust call centre, arrest 16 people

BENGALURU: Sixteen employees, including two women, of a fake BPO firm in HSR Layout have been arrested for defrauding people from the US and Canada. The accused were reportedly putting their victims under digital arrest to extort them. Details of the main accused are not yet known. On October 7, the HSR Layout police inspector received credible information that a fake BPO company, Cybits Solutions Pvt Ltd, had hired around 20-25 employees, all through the online process. After three weeks of training, employees were instructed to call customers. The arrested are, A Francis (29), R Karthik Raju Vadyanam (25), R Sunil (30), A Aravind Anni Poojari (31), L Inder Lalmanee Yadav (31), P Rohan (28), R Rishit Ramesh Saliyan (23), P Guru Prasanna (32), from Maharashtra; F Minot Kankai (32), R Remison Bamon (30), K Phani Leybha Nangzi (27), F Eljiba Mary Marbaning (23), all from Meghalaya; B Rakesh Kumar Singh (29), of Odisha, S Ramakrishna Soni (43), from Madhya Pradesh, P Priyanka Gurung (24), from West Bengal and G Madhev Singh (28), from Gujarat. Of the 16 accused, eight are from Maharashtra, four from Meghalaya and one each from Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Gujarat. The accused were cheating people through internet calls, said Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh. 41 computers, two attendance registers, four script notebooks, 25 mobile phones and ID cards, one IP device, four routers, and four modems were recovered. The accused allegedly contacted US citizens by phone, falsely claiming that they were from US law enforcement. They would intimidate victims, alleging their involvement in drug trafficking or money laundering cases. Under the pretext of helping them, they would demand money to settle the matter. A suo motu case was registered by the police, he said. Employees said the company had advertised jobs on online portals. The company managers had lured job seekers by providing houses to everyone, cabs and food, said an officer. The defrauded amounts were deposited into the companys wallets or bank accounts.