Pune: 118 Employees Made Accused in Fake Amazon Call Centre Scam; Raids in Navi Mumbai, Ahmedabad Underway

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Pune, 26th May 2025: In a major breakthrough in the ongoing investigation into a fake Amazon call centre operating out of Pune’s Kharadi area, city police have officially booked all 118 employees found working at the premises. This includes those posing as US law enforcement officers to scam American citizens by threatening them with fabricated “digital arrest” cases linked to narcotics and financial frauds.

Swapnali Shinde, Senior Police Inspector at the Cyber Police Station, confirmed that notices have been served to all call centre agents to join the investigation.

“These individuals were not innocent bystanders. They were fully aware of the fraudulent operations they were part of, which is why we’ve named them as accused,” Shinde said.

Millions Extorted in Name of Law Enforcement

According to the crime branch, the bogus operation was generating between $30,000 to $40,000 daily, preying on unsuspecting US citizens through impersonation and fear tactics. During the raid on Saturday, police discovered 123 individuals on-site, including 12 women, working in shifts to execute the elaborate extortion scheme.

The fraudulent call centre had been operating from rented office space in Pride Icon building in Kharadi since July 2024, under a lease agreement executed in Jaipur, Rajasthan, police revealed.

Five Arrested, Masterminds Still at Large

So far, five men – identified as Sarjitsingh Girawatsingh Shekhawat (26), Abhishekh Ajaykumar Pande (29), Shrimay Paresh Shah (31), Laxman Amarsingh Shekhawat (28), and Aron Arumugan Christian (29) – have been arrested. All are residents of Kharadi but hail from Rajasthan and Gujarat, and have been staying in Pune for about a year.

On Sunday, multiple crime branch teams conducted follow-up raids in Navi Mumbai, while another unit was dispatched to Ahmedabad in search of the three key masterminds behind the operation, who reportedly visited the Pune site once every two weeks.

“The main suspects are on the run. We are tracking digital footprints and financial transactions to locate them,” said an officer involved in the probe.

Why Pune?

Investigators are now trying to determine why the racket was based in Pune rather than in Ahmedabad or Jaipur, especially since the majority of staff had been recruited from Delhi, Noida, Rajasthan, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata.

“It’s suspicious that such a large-scale scam was being coordinated from Pune. We’re probing if the city was chosen to avoid scrutiny or for logistical reasons,” a senior officer said.

US Data Leaked via Dark Web?

A key angle being investigated is the source of American citizens’ personal data used in the scam.

“There is a strong possibility that data was sourced through the dark web by collaborators based in the US, bypassing their local cyber surveillance,” said Inspector Shinde.

“We have also recovered scripted dialogues given to the calling agents. Identifying the author of these scripts will help us connect the dots,” she added.

Case Now with Crime Branch

With the complexity and scale of the operation becoming clearer, the investigation has been handed over to the Pune City Crime Branch, under the leadership of Inspector Ajay Waghmare.