New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Chandra Prakash Gupta in connection with a large-scale illegal call centre scam operating from the Delhi-NCR region and targeting United States nationals, officials said on Wednesday.
Gupta was arrested on December 13 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, following an extensive probe into tech support fraud involving the impersonation of reputed technical service providers.
According to the ED, the Special PMLA Court in Gurugram granted custody of the accused till December 24. Gupta, described as a key accused in the racket, had been absconding since July 2024 after raids conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which later led to the issuance of a non-bailable warrant against him.
The ED investigation was initiated based on an FIR registered by the CBI’s IOD branch in Delhi under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Subsequent searches conducted on December 19 and 20 at 10 locations across Delhi-NCR resulted in the seizure of jewellery worth around Rs 1.75 crore, cash exceeding Rs 10 lakh, four high-end vehicles, eight luxury watches, digital devices and several incriminating documents.
During the searches, over 220 bottles of expensive liquor—far exceeding the permissible residential limit—were also recovered from multiple premises.
The matter has been reported to the State Excise Department, and separate FIRs have been registered. Meanwhile, other key accused, including Arjun Gulati, Abhinav Kalra and Divyansh Goel, are still on the run.
Investigators revealed that illegal call centres were operated from Noida and Gurugram, where employees defrauded US citizens through deceptive pop-up alerts mimicking official Microsoft security notifications.
Victims were tricked into calling numbers displayed on their screens and were persuaded to install remote access software, giving fraudsters complete control over their devices. Sensitive personal and banking information was then extracted.
The proceeds of crime were routed through foreign bank accounts, converted into cryptocurrencies and layered back into India via shell entities.
The ED estimates that between November 2022 and April 2024, victims were cheated of nearly USD 15 million, with assets worth over Rs 100 crore acquired from the illicit proceeds.
Further investigation into the case is ongoing.
(IANS)
