GJ-CALLCENTRE-FBI

Illegal call centre probe: FBI official meets Guj cops
    Ahmedabad, Feb 10 (PTI) The FBI attache in the United
States Embassy in India met Ahmedabad police officials to
assist the latter in an ongoing probe into illegal call
centres busted here recently, a senior official said Sunday.
    Ahmedabad police had sought help from the FBI attache
in the ongoing investigation in illegal call centres involving
US citizens and territory, city police commissioner A K Singh
said.
    The FBI attache visited Ahmedabad Saturday and
gathered information and data related to the case, Singh
added.
    "We are investigating a couple of cases here where we
raided such call centres and arrested people. We have data and
information about US citizens, bank accounts and US territory
connected to the crime," Singh said.
    "We sought help from the law enforcement attache in
the American consulate under mutual legal assistance treaty
since the case involves American citizens and territories," he
said.
    The illegal call centres busted by the Ahmedabad
police's cyber cell were found to be involved in extorting
money from US citizens by making deceptive calls, Singh said.
    He said money thus extorted from the US citizens was
being laundered through Indian shores using hawala, bitcoin
and several other investment methods.
    "We are exploring the possibilities of using legal aid
treaty for getting more information and taking the case to the
logical conclusion on our shore and, if they (US) assist us,
on their shores as well," he said.
    Ahmedabad police had recently busted illegal call
centres operating from the city where data of US citizens
obtained unauthorisedly was used to target victims and defraud
them.
    Co-conspirators in the case have been found to be
based in the USA, Gujarat police said. PTI KA PD
BNM BNM