mumbai

Updated: Aug 11, 2019 01:56 IST

The Mumbai anti-terrorism squad (ATS) on Friday busted an international telephone exchange racket, which caused the government a loss of ₹37.5 crore. ATS officers arrested seven people after raiding six places in Mumbai, Kalyan and Navi Mumbai.

Sources said through the illegal exchange, calls could be made for ₹6 per minute against ₹18 charged by legal operators. The accused have been running the illegal exchange for the past four months.

The accused have been identified as Mohammed Nazim Khan, 29; Mohammed Sibten Abdul Kadar Merchant, 33; Imtiaz R Shaikh, 38; Mandar Devidas Acharekar 36; Sameer Darvez 30; Mohammed Batlawala, 48; and Mohammed Hussain Barkat Syyed, 40. Khan, said to be the mastermind behind the racket, was previously arrested for running a similar racket, said ATS deputy commissioner of police Vinay Rathod. Officers said they are also probing if the racket has any terror link.

“They used to route international Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls, mostly from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait through local mobile numbers. They would illegally convert a VoIP call from abroad into a voice call through illegal international gateway. To convert the foreign-based internet (calls) packets into voice call, they would use Internet Protocol and PRI lines,” Rathod said.

“The money was being collected by the accused’s aides in foreign countries and the money would come to India through hawala operations,” an ATS officer said.

Five ATS teams raided Shivaji Nagar, Masjid Bunder, Dongri, Worli, Kalyan and Panvel, the officer said. They seized 513 SIM cards, nine SIM boxes, a server, seven WiFi routers, three laptops, phone call inter-terminating switches and other materials worth ₹6.55 lakh.

Another ATS officer said, “The most dangerous part of this modus operandi is that no government agency could track these illegal phone calls made from outside the country and these calls could also be not taken on surveillance. Hence, it poses a serious security threat.” A case has been registered at Kalachowki police station against the seven accused under relevant sections of the Indian Telegraph Act, Indian Wireless and Telegraph Act and Information Technology Act. They have been sent in police custody till August 21.