Four held in India for posing as employees of US agencies

New Delhi: In a joint operation of Delhi Police, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Interpol, four persons were arrested from various parts of the country for allegedly posing as employees of US agencies and defrauding victims of over 6 million US dollars, an official said on Sunday.

According to HGS Dhaliwal, Special Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Delhi, some information was received at Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO), from FBI through Interpol about some international cyber criminals running call centres posing as employees of US Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration and other US Agencies.

These conspirators were being aided and assisted byco-conspirators based in India, USA and Uganda.

The accused had defrauded victims of over 6 million US dollar through call centres operating in Uganda.

A case under sections 153/23 u/s 419/420/384/120B/34 IPC (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot, cheating, extortion, criminal conspiracy and common intention) & 66C, 66D IT Act (identity theft, cheating by impersonation) was lodged at Special Cell Police Station and investigation was taken up.

As part of coordinated action, FBI interviewed over 50 victims and also collected evidence of fraud of more than 20 million USD which will be produced in court as per procedure. Two victims of USA have also been examined through video calling by IFSO so far, Dhaliwal said.

The accused who were arrested from different parts of the county were identified as Parth Armarkar (28) alias Uttam Dhillon who was the team leader of call centre running in Uganda, Vatsal Mehta (29), allegedly the Crime syndicate head, Deepak Arora (45) was the “blocker” for Mehta and other call centre in Delhi. Prashant Kumar (45) was providing “runners” in USA and was also a blocker with Arora on commission basis. (UNI)