Former Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma questioned the transfer of police officers and linked their transfer to a case related to running of fake call centres at SS NetCom in Shillong.
SS NetCom is a premier IT solution company in the Northeast. It belongs to the family of chief minister, Conrad K Sangma.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mukul said that when he was the chief minister, a case was registered on August 28, 2017 at Laitumkhrah police station in connection with the running of a fake call centre at SS Netcom by IFA Enterprise.
“SS Netcom recruited job seekers and they were trained by IFA in Ahmedabad, and the IFA operated in Shillong from the premises of SS NetCom. The youth were trained in criminal activities,” the former chief minister said.
Mukul said that when raids were conducted in August 2017, there was a seizure of incriminating documents and cassettes related to the fake call centres.
Alleging that there was a derail in the process of investigation of the case related to fake call centres, the former chief minister said that police officers were also transferred because of the investigation related to the case.
“Without completing the investigation, police were forced to submit a report to the court,” Mukul alleged.
“Whoever is involved in the destruction of evidence, they will not escape the law,” he added.
Mukul also produced a letter written by the then East Khasi Hills district SP Davis N R Marak to the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Eastern Range) on the need to retain inspector, M N Khan and sub inspector, Pintu Das in East Khasi Hills district.
He said their transfer has created a fear psychosis among the officers since the officers were handling the high profile cases.
The letter said that the expertise of M N Khan who has put in long service in the district has not only benefited the personnel of Laitumkhrah police station but has also been a guiding factor to the younger IPS probationers in the district.
Stating that the board members of SS Netcom include the present chief minister Conrad K Sangma, minister James K Sangma and other family members, Mukul said that from the premises of SS Netcom some people were arrested.
Callers from these fake call centres would make calls to people in the United States by posing as officials of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) United States, to extort money from them online in the name of default tax payment.
The callers would gather details of US citizens from websites, pose themselves as IRS agents and then threaten customers to make payments/buy gift coupons for default tax payment or face jail sentence.
In August and September, 2017, police harrested 11 persons after raids were conducted on three alleged fake call centres – IFA Enterprise, BPO Zurich and Dasanbha Enterprise in Shillong.
He slammed the MDA government for not calling a meeting of the State Security Commission (SCC) to discuss issues related to security in the state, including transfer of police officers.