ED raids ‘illegal’ call centre operatives in NCR who duped US nationals of Rs 130 crore

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday said it has conducted searches against some persons based in the NCR, who allegedly duped US nationals through an “illegal” call centre to the tune of about Rs 130 crore.

“The accused persons live in luxury houses allegedly purchased using illegally earned money through a cyber-scam. They also acquired numerous assets valued at more than Rs 100 crore from the proceeds of crime,” the federal probe agency said in a statement.

ED raided the premises linked to the accused in Delhi and Gurugram on August 20, the statement said.

The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR that said the accused, in a criminal conspiracy with each other, operated illegal call centres in Delhi and adjoining areas with the intent of targeting mainly US nationals and subjecting them to a “tech fraud” between November 2022 and April 2024.

The accused – Arjun Gulati, Divyansh Goel and Abhinav Kalra – ran an “illegal” call centre in Noida and Gurugram to target US citizens in the guise of providing them technical support, ED said in the statement.

The accused gained “unauthorised” access to the victims’ bank accounts and transferred funds to multiple foreign shores before routing them to their Indian accounts through a web of transactions involving more than 200 accounts, the agency said.

“The accused cheated the victims to the tune of USD 15 million between November 2022 and April 2024,” it claimed.

Thirty bank accounts of the accused have been frozen while eight luxury cars and some costly watches have been seized during the searches, ED said.