Two telephone exchanges in Mumbai busted; man from UP held
As per the preliminary inquiry, the racket has led to a loss of Rs58 crore to the national exchequer, said an ATS official
The anti-terrorism squad (ATS) busted two illegal telephone exchanges in Thane and Mumbra on Thursday and arrested a 28-year-old man.
The man along with his brother, natives of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradeh, is accused of running a fake telecommunication junction in Thane. As per the preliminary inquiry, the racket has led to a loss of Rs58 crore to the national exchequer, said an ATS official. Officials said that they were probing if the accused had any terror links.
The accused was produced in the court and remanded in custody till April 24. The ATS is on the lookout to nab more suspects and has formed several teams. The arrested man came to Mumbai a few years ago and had been living in Thane with his brother since then.
On the basis of reliable inputs, the ATS accompanied by officials from department of telecommunications (prosecution) raided the accused’s residence in Azad Nagar at Thane. It found 139 SIM cards, a laptop, five SIM boxes and machines for call transforming (illegal international gateways) and three routers. The arrested man confessed to have been running the telephone exchange along with his brother, said the ATS official.
He also spilled beans on another illegal exchange run by his associates in Mumbra. The ATS raided the Mumbra house and seized five illegal international gateways, SIM boxes, 95 SIM cards, three routers and one laptop, said the official.
A case has been registered at Kalachowki police under Sections 4, 20 and 25 of the Indian Telegraph Act, Section 3 and 6 of Indian Wireless and Telegraph Act, and Section 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
The police have learnt that the accused had been running illegal telephone exchanges for the past one-and-a-half years. They used to route international VoIP calls through local mobile numbers. They would illegally convert a VoIP call from abroad into a voice one through illegal international gateway, said another ATS official. The ATS has seized total property worth Rs2.48 lakh. As per the preliminary verification by department of telecommunication officials the total loss of revenue to the national exchequer is around Rs. 58 crores, said ATS official.