No role of public servants in illegal call centre in Pune: CBI
The CBI’s Mumbai unit busted the call centre in Pune on July 24-25 after registering a case against unknown public servants working with banks and four private persons for allegedly running the illegal entity since January 2025 in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy
MUMBAI: A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into a cyber fraud syndicate operating out of Mumbai and Pune, which ran an illegal call centre in Pune to defraud unsuspecting American citizens through impersonation, found no evidence of any role played by any public servant working with banks, as was earlier suspected.
The agency recently informed a Mumbai special court under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act about its findings. “After completion of the investigation, no criminality is found against public servants in the commission of the crime,” the agency said. The CBI sought permission to transfer the case to a magistrate’s court to proceed against the private accused persons, as no offence under the provisions of the PC Act would therefore be attracted, CBI officials said.
The CBI’s Mumbai unit busted the call centre in Pune on July 24-25 after registering a case against unknown public servants working with banks and four private persons for allegedly running the illegal entity since January 2025 in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy.
The CBI had examined the role of bank officials to verify whether they had violated established Reserve Bank of India and institutional guidelines by supporting the syndicate’s activities by assisting in setting up mule bank accounts based on dubious Know Your Customer (KYC) details, which were then used to handle defrauded funds. The proceeds of the crime were allegedly laundered via mule accounts, cryptocurrency, and hawala routes.
The syndicate’s operatives, in connivance with other unknown persons, had allegedly posed as officials of the United States (US) Internal Revenue Service and the Citizenship and Immigration Services to defraud their victims. The call centre’s alleged operators would threaten their victims with legal action for non-existent violations, including those related to tax evasion and immigration laws in the US, via impersonation and phishing, and seek money they claimed was owed to the US government. Phishing is a type of online scam where fraudsters attempt to deceive victims into divulging sensitive information, such as banking details, login credentials and credit card details.
The syndicate, using the illegal call centre, allegedly generated illegal monthly earnings of around ₹3-4 crore by defrauding their victims, the officials said. The CBI in July conducted searches at seven premises belonging to individuals, seizing unaccounted cash of around ₹11.2 lakh, around 150 grams of a narcotic substance, cryptocurrency worth ₹6.94 lakh, and arrested three private accused persons – A Dube, T Shenai and G Savio – on allegations that they were linked to the syndicate.
Under the threat of legal action for alleged violations, the victims were allegedly coerced into paying amounts ranging from $500 to $3,000, through gift cards or Bitcoin transfers, the officials said. Bitcoin is one of the cryptocurrencies, which are virtual currencies, but not a legal tender in India.
The illegal call centre’s operators were allegedly making “spoofed”, VoIP (Voice over Internet Telephony) -based calls to defraud the victims, the officials said. The scam’s operation involved the alleged illegal acquisition of contact leads through vendors, who operated on instant, encrypted messaging platforms.
Similar ongoing CBI probes
Meanwhile, CBI continues to probe suspected roles of public servants, including bank/police officials, in two other separate cases linked to illegal call centres allegedly operating to dupe foreign victims through impersonation. The CBI had registered these two FIRs in August in the case of a call centre at Igatpuri, and in September in the case of two call centres run from Nashik. The Enforcement Directorate recently began its money laundering probes in these two cases as well.
