The city crime branch has busted a major racket involved in leaking and selling confidential details of people and has arrested a private detective in the case. Several other private detective agencies are under police radar who indulged in illegal activities and teams have already been sent to different states to nab them, said police.
The officials of crime branch unit 5 received information that Shailesh Manjarekar, 39, who runs a private detective agency by the name Accent Confidential and Investigation sells confidential details of people to his clients. The details include Call Details Record (CDR), Subscriber Details Record (SDR), location and bank statements.
Working on the information police approached Manjarekar through a bogus customer, claiming that his friend suspects his wife having an extra marital affair and that he wanted her CDR. The customer demanded samples of CDR that were previously fetched by Manjarekar for his own satisfaction.
Manjarekar was called to a mall in Goregaon on Saturday where a police team was waiting to arrest him. During his search police recovered, CDR details along with five mobile phones and a couple of pen drives and other gadgets.
Along with Manjarekar police also arrested one Rajendra Sau, 26, who was accompanying Manjarekar. The two have been arrested under sections for cheating and forgery of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with relevant sections of Information Technology act and Telegraph act, said police.
During his interrogation, it was revealed that he received CDR, SDR and location details from a Delhi based man named Saurabh Sahu and a Haryana based person. Police teams have already been sent to these states to nab them. According to the police, the two wanted accused also provided the same details to multiple private detective agencies across the country and charged them for their services.
As per Manjarekar's statement to the police, a woman so far identified as Sharma used to sell Manjarekar banking details of people on request. She has also been named as an accused in the case along with other private detectives, said police.
In 2018, the Thane police arrested several private detectives including women private detectives, lawyers and police personnel in the CDR racket. The gang had obtained CDR of prominent persons including that of celebrities and politicians.
