‘Typing error’ forces teen to be in jail for 18 ‘extra’ days

Adil was among the 80 people who were arrested in October 2016 after Thane police raided 6 call centres where the accused allegedly made calls to US citizens

By: News Desk |
February 6, 2017 9:58 am

Accused in the IRS call centre scam, Adil Siraj Saheb, had to send 18 extra days behind the bars in Taloja Central Prison after the police made a “typing error” in its remand application.

While he was a ‘closer’ who would just make or receive calls, he was wrongly named as an ‘instructor’ at one of the call centres in the remand application. Hence 22 other ‘closers’ were granted bail by a Thane sessions court on January 9, Adil’s plea was rejected saying that he was an ‘instructor’.

However, on January 27 the public prosecutor admitted in court that the accused had been wrongly mentioned. It was then that Adil was granted bail, 18 days after he was actually supposed to step out of jail.

“There had been a typing error in one of the documents presented before the court while seeking his remand. However, we later rectified that and in all other documents, including the chargesheet, his role has been mentioned as closer,” investigating officer ACP Mukund Hatote said.

Around 80 people had been arrested in October 2016 after the Thane police raided six call centres where the accused allegedly made calls to US citizens. The fraudulent calls were made where the callers pretended to be officials of the Internal Revenue Service and asked for money to settle pending tax disputes.

They also warned US citizens to instantly settle the tax defaults by paying to these call centres. Once they agreed to pay, a superior working in the centre would discuss the amount the caller was supposed to pay. The payments were made in the form of gift cards. Employees were also asked to maintain an excel sheet of the total number of gift cards per day.