Gurugram: Telecom firm officials held in cyber fraud case

The gang paid the firm a monthly fee of ₹8-10 lakh for using these numbers, which were issued in the last four to five months, police said

The Gurugram police arrested two senior officials of a major Indian telecom firm for allegedly issuing virtual phone numbers to overseas cybercrime gangs which used these numbers to cheat people in cities across the country by trapping them in task-based frauds, police said on Friday.

The two arrested officials of the telecom firm on Friday. (HT Photo)

Police suspect that at least 2,900 virtual numbers were issued by the two in connivance with other suspects. The gangs paid the firm a monthly fee of ₹8-10 lakh for using each virtual number, most of which were issued in the last four to five months, police added.

The arrested accused were identified as Neeraj Walia, who is from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, and Hemant Sharma, who is from East of Kailash in south Delhi. The two were arrested after being called for interrogation on Thursday, said Priyanshu Dewan, assistant commissioner of police, cybercrime.

“The two had issued three virtual numbers for a shell firm whose address on documents was mentioned as Dundahera, Sector 21. Walia had the responsibility of performing site verification of firms that applied for virtual numbers. However, he okayed the issuance of numbers for a firm named Ekamdarsh Services Limited which had a plot number of Dundahera which doesn’t even exist. Sharma, a senior manager and team leader, gave further approval after which the three numbers were issued and supplied to cybercriminals,” he said and added that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s guidelines were violated by issuing such numbers without physical verification.

Police said that the gang used one of these numbers to call a woman in Gurugram and offered her a part-time job writing reviews for hotels on social media platforms to earn money.

“She was initially paid small amounts after which she was made to deposit money for getting tasks and was defrauded. It was in the course of investigation in this case with the help of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre of the Union ministry of home affairs that we got to know about these virtual numbers and finally reached up to the telecom employees who had issued them,” said Dewan.

Police discovered from the WhatsApp chats of the two arrested accused that they also issued hundreds of connections for SIP Over AWS Numbers, DID numbers, COCP numbers, and cloud-based services connections to cyber fraudsters operating from China and other Southeast Asian countries.

Walia and Sharma were taken on police remand for detailed interrogation, police said, adding that their WhatsApp chats revealed the involvement of other suspects in creating shell firms and issuing numbers to foreign entities. Attempts are underway to arrest other suspects, police said.

Based on a complaint from the victim, a first information report was registered against the two telecom officials and other unidentified suspects under sections 318(4), 319 and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at the Cybercrime police station (east) on Thursday.