The vehicle, which is registered under Indian Test cricket captain’s name, was purchased by a call centre scam mastermind
The call centre mastermind Sagar Thakar, alias Shaggy purchased a swanky Audi R8 car from the Indian Test cricket captain Virat Kohli and had kept it at his friend’s residence in Rohtak, Haryana. The car continues to be on the name of the cricketer and was not transferred to Shaggy.
Sagar Thakkar, alias Shaggy is the mastermind in the call centre scam which conned thousands of Americans by posing as Internal Revenue Services official and is absconding since the call centre racket was busted by the Thane police department. He is suspected to be into a hiding in Dubai which was also a money trail route for the hawala transactions. The Audi R8 which costs around Rs 3-3.5 Crores was purchased by him while cops revealed that Rs 2.5 Crores was paid as the car had few glitches.
“The car was purchased in the month of May and the cricketer had signed the transfer form but it was not transferred by the purchaser Shaggy, the transaction took place this year and it was kept at Rohtak in Haryana at his friend’s residence,” said Parag Manere, DCP, Thane Crime Branch.
“The car was bought from crime money and so we seized it and is now in our custody,” said Manere.
A crime branch official privy to investigations revealed, “Sagar Thakar was a big fan of Kohli and when he enquired with the broker in Haryana about the vehicle he was informed about the car and he readily purchased it paying RS2.5 Crore as the car required technical assistance,” said the official.
“The car was later used by him and his girlfriend and was kept at Rohtak at his friend’s residence since it was bought,” said the official.
“After the raid, when we received the tip off we conducted the procedures to take it in our custody and brought it to the Headquarters”, said the official.
Thane police department raided the call centres in Mira road and arrested 72 persons while the investigations unfolded and arrested other three persons involved in the similar scam. The cops are on the lookout for the masterminds in the case while the US agencies booked 61 people for defrauding US residents for thousands of millions in dollars. While the scam which was operated from India was spread across various states as they cheated residents in UK, USA and Canada.
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