The Anti-Extortion Cell of the Thane Police has dismantled a sophisticated fraud ring centered around illegal loan recovery tactics and misuse of SIM cards. This crackdown resulted in the arrests of three people and the confiscation of equipment valued at Rs 77,300. Among those arrested were a representative from Vodafone Idea (VI), a call center proprietor, and a telecaller. They stand accused of coercing and intimidating a customer's relatives and neighbors. Investigations revealed their involvement in a scheme where SIM cards were fraudulently acquired in the customer's name to facilitate threatening phone calls.
The case came to light when a complainant filed a report at Chitalsar Manpada Police Station, citing harassment through abusive and obscene phone calls from unknown numbers. The police registered the case (number 632/2024) on July 2, 2024, under sections 504, 506, 509, 420, and 34 of the IPC.
Technical analysis of the case revealed that one of the mobile numbers belonged to Mangesh Haresh Sutare, 34, a fisherman from Mumbai, who denied ever owning the number. Further investigation led to Rahulkumar Tilakdhari Dubey, 33, a VI company representative from Virar East. Dubey confessed to fraudulently issuing multiple SIM cards under customers' names to meet company targets. He admitted to providing these extra SIM cards to a loan recovery call center named Citizen Capital in Bhayander East.
Dubey was arrested on 3rd July 9, 2024. A subsequent raid on the call center in Bhayander led to the arrest of its owner, Shubham Kalicharan Ojha, 29, from Mira Road East, Thane. Ojha confirmed using the fraudulent SIM cards for loan recovery calls.
Amit Mangla Pathak, 33, a telecaller from Malad West, Mumbai, was also arrested. He was found to be making recovery calls for Slice Finance, Kotak Bank, and IDFC First Bank, harassing the complainant despite them not having taken any loans.
The accused were remanded to police custody until 10th July 9, 2024. Seizure of equipment worth ₹77,300 took place. Police confiscated four SSD hard disks, one GSM gateway, one TP-Link 24-port switch, one router, and three mobile phones from the fraudulent call center in Bhayander East.
“Thane city residents are urged to report any harassment from loan recovery tele-callers using abusive or obscene language to the police. Recovery agents should behave responsibly. Data breaches and customer abuse will not be tolerated ,” told Shivraj Patil, DCP (Crime) in a press conference. The investigation was led by Officer Sunil Tarmale from the Anti-Extortion Squad, Crime Branch, Thane City under the guidamce of police commissioner Ashutosh Dumbre, Senior Inspector Maloji Shinde and other senior officers.