Illegal telephone exchange gang may have pan-India ties

Jaipur: A day after the Jhunjhunu police busted an illegal telephone exchange racket, the police are on the lookout for one Wasim Khan who allegedly provided four expensive voice over internet protocol (VOIP) routing machines to the gang. Police suspect the gang may have ties in other states too.

District superintendent of police (SP) Manish Agarwal said that Wasim had provided the devices to the three accused—Subash, Manoj and Suresh—who were arrested on Friday. "These machines were used to convert calls originating from foreign countries into local phone calls. Four machines were confiscated from the gang members, each estimated to cost about Rs 1 lakh. The accused admitted that the machines were given to them by Wasim Khan," said Agarwal.

The investigators are probing if there are any ties between the Jhunjhunu gang and a similar module which was busted by the Mumbai police earlier this year. The source confirmed to TOI that Wasim had brought these machines from Mumbai and, hence, the connection between the JhunJhunu gang and the one nabbed by the Mumbai crime branch cannot be ruled out.

The JhunJhunu police had confiscated a 16-slot SIM box from the accused, a device often used for the VOIP gateway system. "The gang used these devises to route internet calls to local mobile network. It is not only illegal but pose a great economic and security threat," said an official, adding that these gangs route as many as one lakh international calls through local numbers.

Sources said that such illegal international phone exchanges were used for multiple reasons, including making extortion calls and to bypass ISD tariff rates.

"Since VOIP calls are not regulated by regular gateways, one cannot keep a tab on such calls," said Agarwal.

All the three accused who were arrested on Thursday night are residents of Nawalgarh in Jhunjhunu. Another accused is currently on the run.

"Wasim himself is said to be a resident of Uttar Pradesh, but he has ties as far as Mumbai. When the Maharasthra police busted a similar racket in their state, Wasim had called up his Jhunjhunu contacts and informed them about the matter," said an official.

Police said they would speak to their counterparts in other states like Maharasthra. "There have been multiple illegal phone exchange rackets discovered by police in different parts of the country. It has to be confirmed if the Jhunjhunu gang was also a part of the pan-India racket," the official said.