Cop sends son undercover as sweeper to bust call centre

A 21yearold helped his policeman father and the Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar MBVV police bust a fake call centre by posing as a sweeper at the society the fraudsters were operating from The fraudsters used to cheat stock traders by making false promises of lucrative returns if they invest in the forex market Six people have been arrested in the casePolice sources said that the accused used to keep changing their officersquos location Officers from the Special Branch and Cyber cell got wind of their location in Vasai but werenrsquot sure of the exact flat So one of them deployed his son as a sweeper in the society The youngest leader donned shabby clothes and put a towel on his shoulderMastermind Adil Yusuf Memon PicsHanif PatelldquoThe accused had rented the premises in December but we did not know which flat they were in We did not want to conduct a raid without concrete evidence We only knew that a group of men enter the society at 9 am and return after 530 pmrdquo said an officer One of their attempts to tail the accused had already failedldquoA Special Branch officer Police SubInspector PSI Mahesh Gosavi told his son to dress up in shabby clothes and tail a group of men at Vishwakarma Paradise society Vasairdquo the source saidOn ground zeroOn Thursday morning Gosavirsquos son Omkar reached the spot with a broom ldquoIt was around 830 am when two men arrived I started to sweep the society and a few minutes later more people came in a car I followed them upstairs while cleaning the staircaserdquo Omkar saidOmkar Gosavi is an automobile engineering studentldquoThe men stopped at the first floor and entered a flat The main door did not have a peeping holerdquo said Omkar He returned downstairs and told his father about the flat number and the number of menThe police prepared a team for a raid and again took Omkarrsquos help ldquoThis time I donned formal clothes and went to the flat along with the security guard I told them to move their car as a big vehicle of mine was about to arrive They initially refused but later agreed and a duo went down and was caught by the police Meanwhile I entered the flat and four men started arguing with me Just then the police arrived and took them in custodyrdquo Omkar saidPSI Gosavi said ldquoOmkarrsquos help was crucial and helped us have a successful raid He is a brave boyrdquoModus operandiThe head of the cyber cell team of MBVV police Assistant Police Inspector API Pravin Swamy said ldquoWe have recovered 48 SIM cards 16 cellphones and 10 bank accounts of the accusedrdquoThe arrested accused have been identified as Adil Yusuf Memon 28 Hussain Noman Bundiwala 22 Huzaifa Akbar Bahrenwala 23 Murtaza Huzema Bhandpurawala 19 Abdeli Shabbir Iji 21 and Husen Shabbir Sanjanwala 23ldquoThe mastermind is Adil and his brother who is yet to be arrested Adil had been running the operation for four to five yearsrdquo API Swamy said ldquoThe fraudsters developed an app for smartphones They would target online traders by luring them to use their app for attractive returnsrdquo Swamy saidldquoOn the app the accused would manipulate details of stock tradersrsquo Demat accounts to show better returns Later they would convince them to invest in the forex marketrdquo Swamy said adding that more people are believed to have been cheated during the lockdown to the tune of crores The accused used to pocket all the money people investedldquoSo far two such apps MTS and FQ Markets have been found on their phones Adil developed many such apps in the pastrdquo Swamy saidPolice have learnt that a case has been registered against FQ Markets app at Jamshedpur and Tirupati while two people were cheated in Vasai on ThursdayldquoOur officers have worked proactively in the case Now we have to attend to the complexities inherent in the investigation which involves electronic evidence I would like to make an appeal to the victims to come forward and join the investigationrdquo Commissioner of Police Sadanand Date told midday