'Family business' of fraud: Father, children ran fake online loan call centre in south Delhi; held

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police busted a fake call centre in South Delhi’s Sangam Vihar, operated by members of a family, which was cheating people by offering instant online loans.Police received a complaint on September 3 from Shuaib, a resident of North Delhi’s Sadar Bazar.

He said that while looking for a loan and approaching various banks, he received a WhatsApp call on August 25 from an unknown number.

The caller introduced himself as a loan agent and sought documents along with ₹2,750 as file processing charges.After the payment was made, the caller falsely claimed that the loan was sanctioned and would be credited shortly. The next day, Shuaib was informed that the loan fell under the unsecured category and that ₹11,800 was required for its disbursal.

He was later asked to pay an additional ₹6,000 towards stamp duty.The fraudsters continued to contact the complainant on various pretexts and eventually extracted a total of ₹36,050 from him. The cheated amount was transferred through UPI to a bank account in the name of Himanshu Kumar.Following the complaint, DCP (North) Raja Banthia constituted a team, which conducted technical analysis of call detail records (CDRs), IMEI data, and a detailed examination of the money trail across multiple bank accounts.

Based on the investigation, a raid was conducted in Sangam Vihar on December 11, leading to the arrest of Suresh Kumar (62), who was found to be a director of the fake call centre.During sustained interrogation, Suresh disclosed the involvement of his children—Himanshu Kumar, Mohit Kumar, Rohit Kumar, and Madhu Rani—who were allegedly operating and managing the call centre. At the time of the raid, all four were absconding.

They later joined the investigation and, after interrogation, were bound down.Suresh further revealed that his son Himanshu was engaged in loan and insurance-related work for several years and proposed setting up the call centre to target unsuspecting individuals by offering fake loans and insurance services to earn illegal profits.