Thane cops have now discovered that Sagar Thakkar alias Shaggy was also part of an online medical fraud and had been running the racket from Gujarat in 2012
The Thane Crime Branch has arrested 70 accused in the Mira Road call centre scam. File pic
The kingpin of the multi-crore call centre scam, who is on the run, was earlier involved in a medical fraud, extorting money from Indians who used to spend high amounts monthly on medicines. Sources from the investigation agencies said the medical racket was being run from Bhavnagar in Gujarat in 2012, but it was stopped as soon as it popped up on the police radar.
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Sagar Thakkar alias Shaggy
The Thane police have found that Sagar Thakkar, alias Shaggy, and his accomplices Ali, Tapesh, Jimmy and Akhilesh Singh were the key players. “The five were running the medical racket. They had managed to procure data of people buying medicines from chemist shops across the India. They specifically targeted those spending more than Rs 5,000 a month,” said an officer.
How it worked
Officers said they would call up a customer and say that s/he had been selected for a discount scheme for being a regular at the particular medical shop. The person was told that s/he would be given a discount of 30 per cent on his/her annual medicine purchase but s/he would have to deposit some amount first in a bank account.
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The accused would then give the customer details of an account and ask him/her to make the transfer via netbanking.
“In this manner they cheated a lot of people. The five ran this racket with the help of their boss, a Bhavnagar resident; he was the one they reported to. We are not yet certain of his identity and are checking to see if the same person was involved in the call centre racket too,” said the officer.
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