Venkatesan (name changed), a resident of Velachery in Chennai was looking to get personal loan for his marriage and had approached several banks for the purpose. One day, he had received a phone call in which the person on the other end, claiming to be from an insurance company, had said that they offered loan services which people can avail by submitting their documents and subscribing to a policy for that is 10% of the loan amount.
Venkatesan who had paid ₹40,000 and submitted his documents had received no communication for several months. Realizing that he had been cheated, Venkatesan lodged a complaint at the Deputy Commissioner of Police Office in Adyar.
Usually, call centres make their calls from landline numbers to come across as legitimate. However, this one time, the said call centre had called from a mobile number which was used by the police to track it down.
Upon investigation it was found that the call centre named Berakhah Business Solution located in Velachery was run by one B. Prem Kumar, an organizer of DMK Youth Wing, which was used for swindling money from the public through enticements.
Police have arrested two people – Bennisha, the wife of DMK Youth Wing functionary managing the call centre and Vignesh, the team lead working at the call centre. Seven landline phones, 3 mobile phones, a car ₹40,000 were seized from the spot. More than 10 women who were working at the call centre were issued a warning and sent.
Police are now on the hunt for B. Prem Kumar and his accomplice Alphonse both of whom are now absconding.