GHAZIABAD: Three men were arrested from a call centre in Noida Sector 132 for allegedly cheating a doctor by asking to pay up a sum to receive a courier and later convincing him to invest in government schemes.The arrested accused were identified as Gaurav Dua (27), a resident of Supertech Ecovillage in Noida Extension; Vijay Kashyap (34) of Sector 44 and Dinesh Kumar from Bulandshahr.Gaurav, police said, worked as a team leader while Vijay and Dinesh were assigned the task of persuading poor people to let them use their bank accounts to park the money earned from frauds. Police are also probing allegations that thegang had robbed more than a hundred people over the past one year.The doctor in Indirapuram alleged he was cheated of Rs 1.7 crore that he paid in 36 transactions.Sachidanand, the additional DCP (crime), told TOI that Dr Prabhash Chaudhary received a call from the accused, who identified themselves as officials of Bima Lokpal, the insurance ombudsman.The doctor was allegedly told he had an expensive courier to be delivered to his address but needed to pay Rs 80,000, which would be refunded once the parcel reached him. Dr Chaudhary paid the amount and was assured the courier would be delivered to him in 10-15 days.Five days later, the doctor got a call from the same gang members and was asked to invest in government schemes for lucrative returns. Dr Chaudhary told police he believed the callers, thinking they were government officials.He transferred Rs 5 lakh in the beginning. Over the next few months, he ended up paying Rs 1.7 crore in total in 36 transactions. He was lured to pay the money with the promise of higher returns. He was also told that some of the money was needed for processing the returns, the ADCP said.When the victim countered the accused on the lack of returns, they stopped taking his calls and switched off some phones. Police tracked their phones and arrested them. The owner of the call centre, Sonu Chauhan, is still on the run. Gaurav, the team leader, worked as a store manager and came in touch with Sonu to seek suggestions on augmenting his income. Sonu told him he ran a call centre in Sector 132 and asked him to join it, Sachidanand said.Gaurav and Sonu then hired some people who could provide them with data of insurance policies. According to the arrangement, Gaurav would get 25% of the money earned from frauds.Vijay ran a chaat stall and suffered huge losses during the pandemic. Dinesh was his regular customer. Dinesh, an LLB graduate, would provide account details to the other gang members. He would get Rs 5,000 for information on each account, the ADCP said.The police team that searched the call centre recovered 27 debit and credit cards of different banks, a laptop, six phones, three cars and Rs 2 lakh cash from the accused.An FIR was lodged against them under IPC sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) and provisions of the IT Act. They were remanded in judicial custody.

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