Thane call centre racket claims life of US woman

October 8, 2016

Thane, Oct 8: The multi-million dollar call center racket allegedly claimed the life of an elderly American woman, who was threatened after refusing to meet the demands of the call centre employees posing as US revenue officials.

racket
According to Thane Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, who is credited with exposing the racket, the probe team hit upon the vital information when it was scanning the seized call record hard disks.

The unidentified American national is said to have died after allegedly suffering a stroke following a threatening call by an employee, Singh told a section of media here yesterday without elaborating further.

The incident was revealed from a call record wherein the son of the woman is heard abusing the caller for the death of his mother. The probe team is trying to locate the call (its place and time) and fix the employee in question after which the police is likely to slap additional charges under section 304 of the IPC on the accused, he said.

The callers used to seek financial and bank details of US citizens and if the victims refused the information, they would allegedly threaten them with dire consequences including legal action and penalties.

The racket was exposed after city police raided three call centres, which were run illegally at the premises of Hari Om IT Park, Universal Outsourcing Services and Oswal House in Mira Road locality in Thane district, on Tuesday night.

The callers used to make calls to people in the US and conned them after speaking in American accent by posing as officials of US Internal Revenue Service.

According to police, some of the call centre employees earned up to Rs 1 lakh per month as a reward by the racket operators for making US nationals cough up money.

The employees were fully trained in US accent and were given SOP and call sheet, based on which they used to make calls to the 'tax defaulters'.

They used to make at least 100 calls per day of which 10-15 calls would materialise and of these 3-4 people would make payment under threat by the conmen, police said.

The daily turnover of these call centres is said to be to the tune of nearly Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.50 crore, and the annual turnover could be well above Rs 300 crore.

Besides arresting 70 people, Kashimira police has booked another 630 people under IPC sections 384 (extortion), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating) and under relevant sections of IT Act and Indian Telegraph Act.

Also, police have spread a dragnet for nabbing 12 absconding accused in the case including two directors of Universal Outsourcing Services, namely Tapan Gupta and Arjun Vasu. It is also tracing the money trail as well as gauging the quantum of the fraud. All 70 persons arrested so far are in police custody till October 10.

Besides arresting 70 people, Kashimira police has booked another 630 people under IPC sections 384 (extortion), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating) and under relevant sections of IT Act and Indian Telegraph Act.

Also, police have spread a dragnet for nabbing 12 absconding accused in the case including two directors of Universal Outsourcing Services, namely Tapan Gupta and Arjun Vasu. It is also tracing the money trail as well as gauging the quantum of the fraud. All 70 persons arrested so far are in police custody till October 10.

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News Network
March 11,2024

Modishah.jpg

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government on Monday announced the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The move to notify the rules of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act came before the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Notably, the CAA was an integral part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The law was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019 after Modi government 2.0 came to power.

“Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will be notifying today, the Rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA-2019). These rules, called the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 will enable the persons eligible under CAA-2019 to apply for grant of Indian citizenship,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement on X.

“The applications will be submitted in a completely online mode for which a web portal has been provided,” it added.

RULES NOTIFIED BEFORE LOK SABHA POLLS

The issue of CAA has drawn massive protests across India in 2019, with some parties calling the legislation divisive.

The government has debunked such narratives and called CAA a “law of the land” that would be implemented.

Speaking at a business summit last month, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the CAA rules will be implemented before the Lok Sabha polls.

“Our Muslim brothers are being misled and instigated (against the CAA). The CAA is only meant to give citizenship to those who came to India after facing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It is not for snatching anyone’s Indian citizenship,” he had said.

ABOUT CAA

The notification of the rules is set to pave the way for the migrants from neighbouring countries to find citizenship in India.

The CAA amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 to provide Indian citizenship to migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who belong to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist, and Christian communities and had entered India on or before December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution in their home countries.

The CAA will help refugees from these neighbouring countries, who don’t have documents.

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News Network
March 10,2024

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The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress on Sunday, March 10, declared its candidate list for the Lok Sabha polls expected to be held in April-May this year.

Banerjee's nephew and TMC general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, announced the names of 42 candidates for all the seats in Bengal.

Abhishek surprised many when he announced the name of former cricketer Yusuf Pathan from Baharampur, which is the bastion of Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Party leader Mahua Moitra also appears among the candidates from her usual seat of Krishnanagar.

Banerjee and her team of candidates arrived at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground on Sunday afternoon as the TMC kicked off the campaign for the elections.

Banerjee also announced that the party is in talks with the Samajwadi Party for contesting in one Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Among some of the prominent names, Abhishek Banerjee will contest from Diamond Harbour, expelled Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra from Krishnanagar, Bengali film actor Dipak Adhikary from his usual constituency Ghatal, former cricketer and politician Kirti Azad from Bardhaman-Durgapur. Bollywood veteran Shatrughan Sinha will contest from Asansol.

Before announcing the names, Abhishek slammed the Modi government at the Centre, claiming that "Modi ki guarantee" has "zero warranty". He also labelled BJP leaders as "outsiders and anti-Bengal", who only visit the state during elections.

Banerjee also asserted that the people of the state will give a befitting reply to the saffron camp during the Lok Sabha elections for "withholding the state's funds".

Check out the full list of candidates here:

  • Coochbehar: Jagdish Chandra Basuniya
  • Alipurduar: Prakash Chik Baraik
  • Jalpaiguri: Nirmal Chandra Roy
  • Darjeeling: Gopal Lama
  • Raigunj: Krishna Kalyani
  • Balurghat: Biplab Mitra
  • Malda North: Prasun Banerjee
  • Malda South: Shahnawaz Ali Raihan
  • Jangipur: Khalilur Rehman
  • Baharampur: Yusuf Pathaan
  • Murshidabad: Abu Teher Khan
  • Krishnanagar: Mahua Moitra
  • Ranaghat: Mukutmani Adhikari
  • Bangaon: Biswajit Das
  • Barrackpore: Partha Bhowmik
  • Dum Dum: Sougata Roy
  • Barasat: Kakali Ghosh Dastidar
  • Basirhat: Haji Nurul Islam
  • Joynagar: Pratima Mondal
  • Mathurapur: Bapi Haldar
  • Diamond Harbour: Abhishek Banerjee
  • Jadavpur: Sayoni Ghosh
  • Kolkata South: Mala Roy
  • Kolkata North: Sudip Bandyopadhyay
  • Howrah: Prasun Bandyopadhyay
  • Uluberia: Sajdah Ahmed
  • Srirampore: Kalyan Banerjee
  • Hoogly: Rachana Banerjee
  • Arambagh: Mitali Bag
  • Tamluk: Debangshu Bhattacharya
  • Kanthi: Uttam Barik
  • Ghatal: Dipak Adhikary (Dev)
  • Jhargram: Kalipada Soren
  • Medinipur: June Malia
  • Purulia: Shantiram Mahato
  • Bankura: Arup Chakraborty
  • Bardhaman North: Dr. Sharmila Sarkar
  • Bardhaman-Durgapur: Kirti Azad
  • Asansol: Shatrughan Sinha
  • Bolpur: Asit Kumar Mal
  • Birbhum: Shatabdi Roy
  • Bishnupur: Sujata Khan

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News Network
March 16,2024

election.jpg

New Delhi: The 2024 general election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases from April 19, Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar said today, announcing the largest democratic exercise in the world. Results will be announced on June 4.

The seven phases: 
April 19
April 26
May 7
May 13
May 20
May 25
June 1

Simultaneous election for Lok Sabha and assembly will be held in four states -- Sikkim, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Andhra.  

By-elections will also be held for 26 assembly seats across multiple states, including Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

Mr Kumar, announcing the dates, sent out a strong message on fake news on social media, saying political parties should ensure responsible social media behaviour -- "verify before you amplify".

"Fake news will be dealt with severely as per existent laws.. Section 79 (3)(B) of the IT Act empowers nodal officers in each state to remove unlawful content," he said.

The other strong message was on violation of model code in terms of hate speeches. "There should be issue-based campaign, no hate speeches, no speeches along caste or religious lines, no criticism of anyone's personal lives," he said.

The media must clarify when they carry political adverts, those cannot masquerade as news, he said. Individual messages regarding this would be sent to the candidates, he added.

The commission has employed 2,100 advisors to keep an eye on these issues and strong action will be taken regarding this, he said.

Voters above the age of 85 years and persons with disabilities, with 40 per cent disability can vote from home, Mr Kumar said. Around 82 lakh voter are above the age of 85, he said.

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