In joint operation with FBI, Interpol, Delhi police arrests four for cheating US citizens via call centres
A few of the call centres were also in Delhi. Police said Mehta, a native of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, is the head of the syndicate and supervised the functioning of the Uganda-based call centres.
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The accused — Parth Armarkar (28), Vatsal Mehta (29), Deepak Arora (45) and Prashant Kumar (45) — were arrested from different parts of the country by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police over the last couple of weeks, police said. In a joint operation with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Interpol, the Delhi Police have arrested four men who allegedly cheated thousands of US citizens of more than 20 million dollars by running fake call centres.
The accused — Parth Armarkar (28), Vatsal Mehta (29), Deepak Arora (45) and Prashant Kumar (45) — were arrested from different parts of the country by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police over the last couple of weeks, police said. The accused operated from India and Uganda where they set up call centres, posed as US Internal Revenue Service or Drug Enforcement Administration agents and called up US citizens.
A few of the call centres were also in Delhi. Police said Mehta, a native of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, is the head of the syndicate and supervised the functioning of the Uganda-based call centres.
HGS Dhaliwal, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), said, “Our team received information through secret informers, FBI and Interpol that some international cybercriminals are based in India, the US and Uganda. They are running call centres by posing as employees of US Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration and other US agencies and are causing losses to the US citizens.”
During investigation, it was revealed that Armarkar impersonated Uttam Dhillon who served as the acting administrator of the DEA from 2018-20. “He alone cheated victims of over 6 million USD through call centres operating in Uganda, Africa. He is an Indian national and visits India occasionally,” said a police officer.
“The FBI and the Delhi Police shared technical evidence and information on Armarkar, which led our team to identify his whereabouts in Ahmedabad from where he was running part of the criminal activities. After Armarkar’s arrest, the team nabbed Mehta, who was also on the run, from Ahmedabad,” the senior police officer said.
Arora and Kumar, co-conspirators in the syndicate, were traced and arrested from Uttarakhand, police said, adding the FBI was also looking for them.
Dhaliwal said, “As part of the coordinated action, the FBI interviewed over 50 victims and also collected evidence of fraud of more than 20 million USD which will be produced in court as per the procedure. Two victims from the US have also been examined through video calling by the Special Cell of Delhi Police.”
The accused, posing as senior officials, would threaten the citizens by saying their social security number or personal details have either been compromised or found in a criminal case, police said. The victims would then be forced to pay the agents in lieu of getting their names cleared, they added.
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