GHAZIABAD: A majority of the workers at the call centre, which opened four months ago in Sector 6, were recruited from the northeastern states of Manipur and Nagaland, police said.The investigation also revealed that in the initial days, the call centre operated with just 25 employees — all with a “good” command of English and accent-trained to speak fluently like Americans.

Vivek Kumar (29), a resident of Crossings Republik, was among the first to join as the manager of the call centre.

Initially, drawing a salary of around Rs 60,000 per month, he started making up to Rs 2 lakh as the incentives grew.

A senior police officer, privy to the investigation, told TOI that it was Kumar would put up advertisements on various social media platforms seeking candidates who spoke English fluently.

He hired most of the staff from NE states, especially for their accent.

Ringthang Bo (25), who hails from Manipur, told cops he had worked at several call centres in Delhi-NCR before joining Kumar’s team and was drawing Rs 35,000 in salary for the last three months.

Bo joined the gang with a friend Martams Bai Ki Chu (25), who was getting Rs 32,000 a month.

“We have found that the two were training the new joinees in English and how they should speak to the victims.

Bo and Chu would give a script to every employee and ask them to practise for two days.

On the third day, they took a test before they set them up the con job,” police said.

Elika (34), a native of Nagaland, who shifted to Delhi with her husband Votovi in search of a good life, said she knew Kumar and was, therefore, one of the easier choices for the job.

She worked as a team leader at a call centre while her husband ran a fast-food shop in Delhi.

Life, she had thought, was finally becoming easier as the income was steady and good.Sophia (34), a graduate from Nagaland, was working with a call centre in Gurgaon and had shifted to Noida to join the centre two months ago, police said.

According to cops, none of the staffers of the call centre had attempted to alert the cops or quit when they came to know about the con.

It was their greed, or perhaps need, for money that tied them to the work, police said.