HiTec City call centre racket: police trace mastermind, seek custody of fake PayPal agents

HiTec City call centre racket: police trace mastermind, seek custody of fake PayPal agents

The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau is set to seek 14-day custody of the 63 accused who targeted PayPal customers in the US from a call centre - Exito Solutions - in Hitec City.

An estimated 20,000 NRIs and US citizens are said to have been duped over ₹50 lakh in the international scam that operated out of Hyderabad for about a month.

The Bureau will file a petition in Nampally Court on Monday for the custody of the some of the accused, including Chanda Manasvini, the managing director of Exito Solutions, senior officials close to the investigation confirmed.

“We will seek custody of the accused in phases, not all 63 at once. A few will be questioned first, followed by the others,” TGCSB Director Shikha Goel said.

This comes shortly after 63 ‘agents’ manning a fake call centre in Patrika Nagar were arrested by the bureau in an overnight operation carried out on March 5.

Meanwhile, the alleged mastermind behind the operation - Kaivan Patel Rupesh Kumar, alias Jadu Bhai, based in Gujarat - has been traced, and special teams have been deployed to arrest him. Additionally, nearly 100 devices seized during the crackdown are under forensic analysis at the State Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for evidence linked to the illicit transactions.

Investigators are also collaborating with state police forces in Karnataka, Punjab, and other regions, suspecting connections to similar fraud networks operating there.