Noida: Two held for grey market operations in telecom

Noida Police arrested two for running an illegal international telephone exchange, violating the Indian Telegraph Act, causing losses to telecom providers.

Noida: Two people have been arrested for allegedly running a private firm involved in operating an illegal international telephone exchange, the Noida Police said on Sunday, adding that a case has been registered for violating the Indian Telegraph Act and criminal conspiracy.

Police identified the arrested suspects as Shivam Kumar, the manager, and Devki Nandan, the director of the firm. (Representational image)

Police identified the arrested suspects as Shivam Kumar, the manager, and Devki Nandan, the director of the firm.

“A case under sections 318 (cheating) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Indian Telegraph Act was registered at Sector 63 police station,” said Avdhesh Pratap Singh, station house officer, Sector 63, Noida.

The case was registered following a tip-off of an Indian telecommunication provider and the suspects were arrested, officers said. Ramesh Kumar Yadav, posted as an SDA (software defined access) engineer at an Indian telecommunication firm, complained to the police on Saturday.

In a joint operation, telecommunications officials under the supervision of the Department of Telecommunications and Noida Police conducted a raid at the private firm, located in Block G in Sector 63.

“The setup is illegally organised to bypass Indian telecom providers and law enforcement agencies. This eventually caused a huge loss to telecom providers and the government exchequer,” a senior officer said requesting anonymity.

“They are running the setup to save international call charges being paid to telecom service providers. Nearly 1,200 numbers were taken by the private firm to operate the grey market in the telecommunication business. Most of the calls were made to Dubai, Saudi, Australia, etc.,” the official added.

“These 1,200 telephone numbers were misused, thereby bypassing legal international long-distance (ILD) gateways and creating a threat to national security, as all calls passed through this unauthorised exchange cannot be backtraced by law enforcement agencies,” added FIR.

“The company was providing services to their customers online. It is yet to be ascertained who used their services to call foreign numbers, bypassing ILD (international long distance),’ said an officer, requesting anonymity.