Hyderabad: In a joint operation conducted by the sleuths of the south zone task force, officials from the telecom department and Santoshnagar Police, two persons were arrested for running an illegal call routing racket by terminating the international incoming calls and converting them into local ones with the help of voice over internet protocol (VOIP) devices.
The accused were causing a huge financial loss to government of India, specially the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and also posing a threat to national security by resorting to such illegal means to make quick money.
“The illegal call routing was posing a threat to the national security. The termination or routing of calls is not permitted by the DoT (Department of Telecommunications), government of India,” DCP (task force) S. Rashmi Perumal said, at a press meet on Wednesday.
“The accused have been identified as Hidayath Ali, 40, a resident of Yakuthpura and Mujahed Ahmed, 40, of Borabanda. The duo was found running an illegal international telephone exchange with the help of Internet, SIM boxes using BSNL SIM at a rented accommodation in Phool Bagh locality,” Rashmi said.
"The raid was conducted on flat number — 204 at Metro Apartment in Balapur where the illegal activities were going on. The flat was equipped with facility to setup calls from foreign countries such as Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and terminating them into India through illegal ILD exchanges (the facility provides national as well as international cross-border connectivity)," Rashmi added.
While setting up such illegal calls the CLI (calling line identification) displayed to Indian citizens will be the mobile numbers of the country and hence such calls cannot be traced back by the law enforcement agencies, and thereby causing grave threat to national security as well as loss to the exchequer," the DCP said. The police also seized the technical equipment from the accused and handed them to the police station concerned for further investigation.
