Illegal telephone exchange used to call J&K defence personnel busted, 1 arrested

The crime branch of Mumbai Police busted an illegal telephone exchange racket operating from Govandi and arrested one person on Saturday. Agencies are probing if

The crime branch of Mumbai Police busted an illegal telephone exchange racket operating from Govandi and arrested one person on Saturday. Agencies are probing if a terror or spy network was operating using multiple SIM boxes as several calls were made to defence establishments in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

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A SIM box routes international calls as local calls, allowing the box’s operator to bypass international rates charged by local mobile network operators. The SIM boxes are fitted with hundreds of GSM SIM cards procured using fake IDs.

“Two mobile numbers used to make calls were traced to Govandi. These two numbers were kept under surveillance. All the calls received by the parallel exchange were made from abroad. We have started an investigation based on the seizures,” said Akbar Pathan, deputy commissioner of police (detection 1). Sources stated that the calls were made to seek information on defence establishments.

Police seized a total of five SIM boxes, of which one was inactive, and have also recovered 223 SIM cards, 10 mobile phones, a laptop modem, connection board and batteries in the raid conducted at a room of a building in Natwar Parekh compound in Govandi.

In a statement issued by Mumbai Police, the crime branch said that it received a tip-off about a parallel exchange suspected to be used for anti-national activities by unfriendly nations.

“As such calls are not regulated, they can be used for anti-national activities,” read the statement. Such rackets also lead to a loss to the national exchequer and service providers.

Investigations revealed that two numbers of the same service provider registered in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were used to divert calls.

In February this year, the crime branch has busted a similar racket operating from Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Changaramkulam in Kerala. Police seized a total of eight SIM boxes and recovered 686 SIM cards from the raids in the two cities.