Mysterious ISD caller sets MTNL, police worrying

Police and MTNL officials are in a tizzy over international calls worth Rs 9 lakh being made over a period of just five days from a basement in south Delhi, reports Satyen Mohapatra.

Police and MTNL officials are in a tizzy over international calls worth Rs 9 lakh being made over a period of just five days from a basement in south Delhi. In what could have serious security implications in view of the forthcoming Independence Day, there is no trace of the man who made the calls.

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Assistant Commissioner of Police Kalkaji Rakesh Paweriya told HT, "We have got this complaint from MTNL and we are trying to trace the man called Ved Prakash Tripathi but the person has not been found. However we have found out that he had made similar applications even on another exchange. We are also trying to get from the MTNL all the documents submitted by Ved Prakash when subscribing for the telephones." "We are going to register a case, it is a serious matter,"he added.

According to sources in the MTNL who did not wish to be identified a man who gave his name as Ved Prakash Tripathi is reported to have booked six telephones from the MTNL on July 4.

The address given for the telephone booking was K-9, Basement, Chittaranjan Park and his name was given as Ved Prakash Tripathi. However no one of that name was found at that address.

Sources said that most of the calls have been made to a little known capital Honiara of Solomon Islands (ISD Code 00677).

One of the numbers to which the call was made was 0067768560, sources said. Sources said the man had also given his identification as Ved Prakash Tripathi, son of Shri Kripa Shankar Tripathi, Shop No.9, Kalu Ram Complex, Ward No.4, Mehrauli 156-A, Gautam Nagar , New Delhi, with a mobile number 9990861536.

It turned out that the lease agreement, PAN card which Ved Prakash gave as part of documents to prove his identity to the MTNL while getting the telephones were all false, MTNL sources said.

On Aug 3,2008 , MTNL in a confidential letter has informed about the incident to the Assistant Commissioner of Police , Kalkaji urging him to trace the man particularly in view of the forthcoming I-Day.