A TEAM of officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), assisted by Bhopal police on Thursday evening busted an international phone call (ISD) racket in which three culprits were diverting ISD calls from the Internet gateways and duping the government of several lakhs of rupees of revenue.
According to information, trio Sanjay Singh, N Kumar and Abhay Johri had set up a virtual telephone exchange at a house E-7, 195 Arera Colony. Through that they used to divert international calls coming from various countries into local calls. The culprits converted Internet calls into voice calls.
Sanjay Singh is the kingpin of the gang and the racket was running for a long time and was resulting in heavy losses to the government’s revenue, police said. The BSNL office here had been tipped off about the racket. On the basis of the information, a team of BSNL officials assisted by the Habibganj police raided the house in the evening.
ASP Dr G K Pathak said the teams confiscated several hi-tech equipment used for diverting international calls through Internet gateways. Pathak added the culprits were planning to shift the exchange to some location in Sonagiri in a couple of days.
Police also suspect involvement of trio in the hawala trade. Laundering of money earned from illegal process is also suspected. Besides, police are also looking into the aspect of national security breach by the culprits. The culprits have been booked under the relevant sections of the Post and Telegraph Act. The police would duly book them too once the BSNL officials gave a formal complaint to the police, Pathak added.
Police also suspect involvement of trio in the hawala trade. Laundering of money earned from illegal process is also suspected. Besides, police are also looking into the aspect of national security breach by the culprits. The culprits have been booked under the relevant sections of the Post and Telegraph Act. The police would duly book them too once the BSNL officials gave a formal complaint to the police, Pathak added.