IN A startling breakthrough, the Lucknow police on Tuesday unearthed an illegal telephone exchange being run by a group of youths in an Aliganj house.
The group was arranging International phone calls for chosen customers without procuring required licence and paying taxes thus causing a loss of about Rs 50 lakhs to the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) during last two months.
The racket was busted following a tip-off by the Delhi-based Vigilance wing of the BSNL. The cops arrested two of the gang members and recovered 75 mobile sets of a leading private mobile company, two computers, devices worth several lakhs and vehicles.
The vigilance team contacted the top cops who further directed crime branch cops to work on the information given by the BSNL team. Following a sustained surveillance the police tracked down houses at Kapoorthala, Nirala Nagar and Aliganj.
The police teams raided the house at Kapoorthala owned by Gufran Ahmed and were shocked to find one of the rooms equipped with devices and giving look of a telephone exchange. The cops caught two youths identified as Narendra Rai of Azamgarh and latter’s relative Shanti Bhushan.
Since the BSNL officials too were accompanying the cops and dozens of the room was equipped with mobile sets and other devices the youths could not mislead the team.
{{/usCountry}}Since the BSNL officials too were accompanying the cops and dozens of the room was equipped with mobile sets and other devices the youths could not mislead the team.
{{/usCountry}}In the course of interrogation, Rai revealed that he had entered into the business with the help of Vishnu Kumar Dhuldhul of Banglore. He said Vishnu had provided them expertise in handling the mobile sets and arranging phone calls through conferencing.
Vishnu used to arrange the customers from abroad while Rai and his men had managed the same in Eastern UP. Rai confessed to have earned several lakhs during last two months.
Additional SP Umesh Singh who had supervised the operation said that a licence was required to run such exchange while the accused were arranging International phone calls from pre-paid phone services of private mobile company.