With the growing Information Technology (IT) industry in Mohali and mushrooming of hundreds of call centres providing domestic and international services, it has become a challenge for the police to keep tabs on the fraudsters who are duping citizens of various other countries.
In the past two months, the state crime branch and Mohali district police busted two call centres, run by Gujarat-based people, duping the US citizens. In both the raids, around 160 people from the North-Eastern region of the country who were the employees of these call centres were also arrested by the police.
According to the information from the Software Technology Park of India (STPI), around 10 international call centres were registered with the government body. The registration of the international call centres with the STPI is essential as the foreign money transactions are involved.
The domestic call centres, which provide the domestic services need not be registered with the STPI. The registered call centres are regularly monitored by the STPI as a regulatory body.
Police officials told The Indian Express that the criminals who are involved in cyber frauds always look for locations like Mohali as they work without any suspicion.
“If such centres are opened in small towns, people can easily notice them, but in cities like Mohali nobody bothers as people work here in night shifts as well,” said a police officer investigating the case of busting of call centre.
Sources in the police said that there are more than 50 international call centres which are currently operating from Mohali, the officials also said that there were more than 200 call centres which provide domestic services. After busting two call centres in the city, the district police is now keeping a watch on suspicious call centres.
Mohali DSP (city-1) Mohit Aggarwal who led the police team to bust the call centre on Tuesday told The Indian Express that it is always a challenge to bust such crimes as the accused target the US citizens. He added that in such a situation the police need a formal complaint.
“In this case, we acted on the basis of secret information,” DSP Aggarwal added.
The IT industry started flourishing in Mohali in 2005 when the Dell had set up an office in Industrial Area Phase-VIIIB. Since then Mohali has become a hub of IT industry due to its location, manpower and better connectivity.