A call centre that was allegedly selling household articles, making them look like antiques using a chemical coating, was busted in Bidhannagar on Wednesday, police said.

One person, identified the arrested person as Hemanta Sarkar, has been arrested.

An officer of Eco Park police station said that the fake call centre was operating under the name — NEXT-era Energy Solution — inside Ecosuit Building, which falls under the jurisdiction of Eco Park police station.

“We had specific information that those at the call centre were calling people at random and convincing them to purchase household articles at a premium price, claiming them to be antiques. A chemical has been seized from the call centre. We suspect the chemical coating was used on the articles that were being sold off as antiques,” said a senior officer of the New Town police division of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate.

Apart from the chemicals, a protective body gear, a set of watercolours, and a laptop have been seized, the police said.

Unlike other fake call centres where fraudsters try to dupe their targets either by putting them under the threat of digital arrest or a blocked bank account by convincing them to download malware or an app that would help them (fraudsters) gain remote access to their devices, this call centre worked differently, the police said.

“In this case, the callers would simply try to sell regular household articles for a high price by pitching them as antique sets. They did not use any website. They did the entire trading through mobile phones,” said an officer.

The cops said they were investigating who else was involved in the crime.

“We are also probing who was operating the call centre,” said an officer.