New Delhi: Three men who defrauded NRI actress Isha Sharvani and many other Australian residents crores of rupees by pretending to be tax officials have been arrested. Delhi Police’s Cyber Crime Unit busted their fake call centre here, police said on Thursday.
The matter came to light when the actress, who currently lives in Perth, complained to the Delhi Police about being cheated.
Investigations so far by the cyber crime officials have found that, the gang, comprising of Puneet Chadha, 34, Bhanuj Beri, 24, and Rishabh Khanna, 23, have purportedly cheated over 100 Australian residents of crores of rupees.
The actress had told the Cyber Crime Unit in Delhi over the telephone that a few days back, she had received a call from an Australian number seeming to be from capital Canberra. The caller, identifed himself as an Australian Income Tax officer, told her that an arrest warrant had been issued against her in a taxation matter. If she did not deposit the penalty amount within the stipulated time, she would be arrested.
On hearing this, Isha got worried and sensing this, the caller managed to secure her bank account details,
Subsequently, Isha got a call from the number of her Australian accountant and was told that they had made an inadvertent error in her accounts. If this was not rectified fast, she was liable to be arrested.
Now understanding that Isha was caught fast in the net,the cheating gang managed to persuade her to transfer Australian $5,700 (approx Rs 3 lakh) penalty into an Indian bank account.
To make sure that the actress did not get suspicious at being made to transfer the money into an Indian bank account, the gang members told her that the Australian authorities had opened an office in India to collect taxes and penalties and this was its account,
But the gang was not yet done with her. Some days later, Isha got another call telling her that some money in her account was of suspicious nature and seemed to meant to support terrorist activities.
However, this made the actress smell something fishy about the whole matter and she approached the Australian police, who told her that she had become victim of cyber-criminals. Isha then contacted the Delhi Police.
The Cyber Crime Unit began its investigations and busted the fake call centre, being run from Vikaspuri area of west Delhi. They were using software that made calls to originate from Australian numbers. The call centre chief was the mastermind and had called up Isha as the “Australian tax official”. The probe is still on and police are hopeful of further disclosures.
