Shaggy in police custody, but where’s the money, his aides?

Although Sagar Thakkar alias Shaggy, 24, the alleged mastermind of the Thane call centre scam, has been in police custody for a week, the cops are yet to trace the ill-gotten millions and his absconding aides and family members.

Shaggy was arrested on his arrival from Dubai last Friday. He will be in police custody till April 17.

A senior Thane police official said Thakkar took steps to cover up his tracks before returning to India.

In Dubai, Shaggy used a masked US number to stay in touch with his family and acquaintances in Ahmedabad over Whatsapp. These calls find no mention in his call records, making it impossible for the police to establish the identity of the receivers.

Worse still, the police have found just four numbers in the contact lists of the two iphones recovered from Thakkar.

When Thakkar was in Dubai, his father Mukesh allegedly sold his 5,000 square-foot bungalow in Ahmedabad for Rs2.5 crore.

Thakkar sold his BMW SUV through an agent. The police took him to Ahmedabad on Wednesday to identify five of his bank accounts, which they hoped would help unearth the money trail.

Four of these accounts collectively contained Rs25,000, while Rs2.5 crore was wired to an overseas account from the fifth one. Police said Thakkar told them he used the money to pay his bills in Dubai.

Earlier this year, Thakkar was detained for more than two months in Dubai after the United States issued a red corner notice against him. He hired a battery of lawyers, who managed to persuade the authorities to let him off on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

The police have also failed to find the alleged ‘processors’ of the itune cards, which Thakkar took from the victims of the scam run from call centres at Mira Road.

Thakkar allegedly told the victims that agents in China

would help these processors encash those cards for a cut.

In the absence of any concrete evidence that could bolster the case against the mastermind the police are now contemplat ing asking the Thane court to issue a letter rogatory to a Us-based court, so they can obtain digital evidence agains Thakkar.

“His calls, made over What sapp, can only be retrieved from a server that is in the US Recovering his deleted e-mails (from the server) would help trace his money,” sources said