Four held for running 'illegal' telephone exchange in Bhiwandi

Thane police's crime branch on Wednesday arrested four persons for allegedly running an illegal telephone exchange in Bhiwandi which routed inbound international calls to individuals, causing loss of Rs 30 crores to the government.

According to the police, Sufian Ansari, Iqbal Suleman, Mohammed Aslam Sheikh and Yunus Azmi were running the illegal telephone exchange in Bhiwandi. The calls from Middle East countries were connected to SIM Boxes that had SIM cards of different companies. These calls were then routed to local numbers of private telecom service operators. These calls were did not fall in the records of the Department Of Telecommunication and caused losses to the government.

"Persons having membership of the service operated by these accused got an opportunity for traceless and cheap communication from Middle East to India. The arrested accused were trained by a person working with a telecom company", said a Thane crime branch police officer.

"The involvement of accused was such that they dodged paying taxes to the government and also helped people to call at cheap rates", said the officer.

Thane Police Commissioner, Param Bir Singh said, "We are yet to arrest the main accused in the case and have seized 18 SIM boxes, nine routers, 420 sim cards, two laptops, five mobiles, and cash Rs 15,000 from the accused. Accused were booked under sections 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Indian Telegraph Act and Indian Wireless Act."