The Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to crack down on an online courier scam arrested 14 people from across the country who were operating the racket for many months.
City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda said the accused were operating using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) posing as representatives of an international courier company and calling gullible people, threatening them that drugs were being smuggled in their names. Later, the accused posed as Narcotics Control Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation, or Mumbai Crime Branch officials and forced them to transfer money online in the pretext of conducting an inquiry.
Considering the number of such cases in the city to be around 330 in 2023, Mr. Dayananda had formed an SIT led by DCP (Traffic East) Kuldeep Kumar Jain, who tracked down the accused.
The accused were operating from Kerala, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Bhatkal in Karnataka. The accused had managed to rob ₹2.1 crore and the officials seized the bank accounts for further investigations. The police have also seized ₹25.47 lakh in cash along with the laptops and mobile phones used by the accused to run the racket.
