NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested three persons for allegedly running a call centre racket and defrauding foreign nationals, including those from the United States, Canada and the Philippines, on the pretext of offering them loans at concessional rates.
According to ED sources, among the three arrested is “mastermind” Shahnawaz Ahamed Jeelani and his two close associates Vipin Kumar Sharma and Viraj Singh Kuntal. The agency has been granted custodial remand of the accused till July 5 to interrogate them in custody. Another close associate of the main accused has been identified as Mahmud Khan. The agency is looking for him.
The ED conducted searches on June 27 at 14 premises in Jaipur, Nagaur, Mathura, Kanpur, Allahabad and Lucknow in connection with the case, in which the kingpin Shahnawaz Ahmed Jeelani was running the loan racket by posing as David Morrison.
As a result of the searches, the ED seized total cash of Rs 90.37 lakh from three different premises and also seized incriminating materials from a live call centre at Mathura, which contained the details of thousands of foreign nationals allegedly cheated by them over the years.
The ED has traced the money trail of approximately Rs 54 crore, proceeds of crime digitally transferred to India in more than 50 entities controlled by Shahnawaz Ahmed Jeelani, Mahmud Khan and others. The accused were running two call centres in Mathura at night and cheating foreign nationals of the US, Canada, Philippines, etc, ED sources said.
The ED, while investigating the case, had found that some of the people working in these call centres were the same people who were involved in a Jaipur call centre racket earlier investigated by the Rajasthan Police. Based on the details, the investigation was initiated by the ED. This syndicate opened virtual entities in the US using names of dummy persons of India, the probe has revealed.