17Thane - Call Centre

Thane: The Mumbai-based BPO proprietor Jagdish Kanani (33), believed to be the brain behind the scamming call centres, has been remanded to police custody till October 20 by a magistrate court on Monday.
Kanani, police said, had originally conceptualised the hoax telephone fraud where call centre employees would pose as officers of the IRS and threaten Americans citing tax default and rob them of money.
An MBA from Chennai, Kanani is said to be running two call centres in Borivli and Malad and was an active partner in a BPO operating from a commercial centre in Mira Road.
"Kanani had a force of nearly 50 employees in his call centres and was extremely possessive of his staffers. In fact, he had provided residential quarters for his staff and ensured all basic comfort including renting out cars to drive them to and fro to work and keeping a close watch on them,’’ a police officer said.
However, after the October 4 raid by the Thane police on the call centres manage by Sagar Thakkar, who was trained and mentored by Kanani, the two call centres in Borivli and Malad were shut down and the staff has gone missing.
"He has shut the operations and even the staff is absconding. We shall soon nab the employees if they are involved in scam," said a senior police official.
He said Kanani started his operations from Bhavnagar of Gujarat and expanded his base in Ahmedabad and then to Mumbai.
Kanani is suspected to be using the names even as Jagdish Thakkar but the investigators claimed that the fact is yet to be ascertained.
The police are also recording the statements of the land lords of the commercial properties leased to the fake call centre. On the other hand, the investigators have evoked strigent sections of indian penal code in the Case with section 467 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc), section 468 (Forgery for purpose of
cheating) & 471 (Using as genuine a forged or document or electronic record).
Meanwhile, the police expressed regret on providing the wrong photograph of Sagar Thakkar which was published by this news paper in its edition on October 14 and 16. The police had inadvertently issued the picture of one Dharmesh Sagar Thakkar (33) who is said to be staying abroad, presuming him to be the mastermind of the con call centres Shaggy or Sagar Thakkar.
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