Mumbai: In a raid conducted at a fake call centre, 13 people were arrested and booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for cheating a number of people on the pretext of offering jobs at Sahar Airport, Taj Sats Air Catering among others.
According to police, they had received a tip-off that a fake call centre was being operated, which targeted job aspirants and charged them anywhere between ₹2,000 and ₹3,000 on the pretext of various charges of registration in the last six months for a ground staff with the Taj Sats Air Catering Limited at International Airport. The fraud was brought into light by an HR manager, who saw a fake advertisement on social media and alerted her seniors, police officials.
The complainant also posed as a job aspirant and learnt more about the fraud, which helped trap the mastermind Sakhina Motarwala alias Saniya (32), who had been running fake job interviews in an office near Sakinaka Metro Station and committed the offence after she along with her staff posted a fake advertisement on behalf of Taj Sats on Facebook.
An official said that they suspect the racket was into play since more than two years and the fraud amount could be upto crores of rupees. Police said that in the premise of Universal Group, the fraudster's office, it comprises of eight chambers: a recruiting chamber, manager’s chambers, interview room and interestingly “a room that is designed into a lookalike of the interior of an aircraft with seating arrangements”.
Police said that while 13 have been apprehended, they seized 22 hard discs, cheque books and other documents from Motarwala’s office. “Taj Sats sent its staff, Sandesh Chalke, to the accused office to verify the fraud and even paid Rs 2000 to collect the info before filing the FIR,” said the police.
Police are ascertaining the number of victims and at least 100 victims have approached them with a complaint against the Universal Group. Motarwala and 11 of her office staff are in police custody till June 30, while the 17-year-old office boy has been detained and handed over to his parents.
