Mumbai, Dec 02: An investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Igatpuri call centre scam has revealed that the accused had been operating a network of illegal call centres across Maharashtra and Gujarat by frequently shifting locations to evade detection while continuing to target foreign nationals, mainly those from the U.S. and Canada.
According to the CBI’s prosecution complaint (PC) filed before the Special CBI Court in Pune, the syndicate allegedly functioned like a “moving shadow”, repeatedly shifting operational locations, identities and communication routes, managing to stay off the radar for nearly eight months before being busted during the dramatic Igatpuri raid on August 9, 2025.
Investigators found that in July 2025, Vishal Yadav (29), one of the arrested accused and alleged mastermind, approached Sumit Kriplani, the owner of Igatpuri's Rainforest Resort, and secured access to the Nimbus Banquet Hall and 22 rooms at the resort without a formal agreement. Yadav reportedly instructed the resort staff to stay away from the area taken on rent by him and allegedly set up the illegal call centre. He also deployed his own private security guards, who patrolled the restricted area round-the-clock in tightly coordinated shifts, enforcing a near-military perimeter to ensure that neither resort employees nor guests discovered the illicit operation running inside the premises.
From August 1 to 9, the resort, a popular venue for weddings and corporate events, allegedly housed one of Maharashtra’s most sophisticated fraud factories. According to CBI officials, 62 callers worked in rotational shifts, posing as Amazon and Microsoft customer-support executives. They allegedly induced American and Canadian citizens to part with cryptocurrency, gift cards and other digital assets and generate illegal proceeds worth lakhs of rupees every hour.
The agency noted that the Igatpuri setup was only the syndicate’s latest hideout. The operation did not originate there. Before shifting to the Igatpuri resort, the accused had operated a full-fledged illegal call centre from Anandwan Dawane Patil’s farmhouse in Palghar's Saphale since April 2025, before quietly relocating to Igatpuri in late July. The PC alleged that the entire operational infrastructure, including computers, refrigerators, air-conditioners, furniture and a 60 KV generator that powered the Saphale unit, was also relocated from Saphale to Igatpuri between July 30 and August 2 to ensure uninterrupted operation.
According to CBI officials, the relocation of the call center from Saphale to Igatpuri between late July and early August 2025 is considered “crucial.” This period precisely aligns with the transfer of the senior police official from Palghar district, the jurisdiction that included Saphale where the Anandwan Dawane Patil farmhouse had served as the fraud hub since April 2025. The senior police official was immediately posted to Nashik Rural, which covers Igatpuri, and the entire call-center infrastructure was shifted from Saphale to Igatpuri almost immediately after the transfer took effect.
“This is not a coincidence. We are probing whether the fake call-centre syndicate had prior intel on the posting or if it was a deliberate strategy to stay under his protective umbrella,” a senior investigator told the Free Press Journal on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.
The prosecution complaint also details the alleged operational history of absconding accused Sandeep Singh and his trusted lieutenant Vishal Yadav. Before establishing the Saphale and Igatpuri units, the duo allegedly operated a similar call-centre unit at DDS Resort in Brahmanpada near Umbergaon in Gujarat’s Valsad district between January and March 2025. Ansh Yadav, a witness working there, confirmed that the Umbergaon unit used the identical impersonation-fraud template that the syndicate replicated across all subsequent locations in Palghar, Saphale and ultimately Igatpuri.
According to the CBI, the Igatpuri operation became fully functional between August 5 and 8 but was dismantled quickly thereafter. On August 9, CBI teams raided the Rainforest Resort and detained several accused individuals, following months of digital-footprint analysis, financial tracking and surveillance. The agency stated that the crackdown exposed a highly organised network allegedly involved in siphoning off large sums from foreign victims while operating discreetly from remote interiors of Maharashtra.
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CBI officials said they have secured several important leads, including the alleged proceeds of crime (PoC), digital records and details of individuals suspected to have assisted or benefited from the network, and confirmed that further investigation is ongoing.
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