The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested a key accused from Hyderabad in the illegal telephone exchange racket that was busted last month.
The ATS seized over 2,000 SIM cards and other equipment indicating that the scope of the racket was much larger than previously estimated. The racket was busted on August 9 with the arrest of seven people from various locations in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. As many as 513 SIM cards and nine SIM boxes were seized from them. A preliminary estimate of the loss to the exchequer due to calls routed through such exchanges was put at ₹37.50 crore.
A senior ATS officer said, “During the course of our investigation, we found that a prime accused in the racket had fled the city along with a large quantity of equipment. We had been tracking this person for the past month. On Wednesday, we traced him to Hyderabad, from where he was arrested.”
The accused, identified as Rafiq Allatur, had in his possession 2,126 SIM cards purchased from various service providers, 46 SIM boxes and six SIM pool machines, which were used for routing many calls at the same time.
The officer said, “We also seized four desktop computers, eight laptops and eight routers. The sheer quantity of the equipment indicates that the racket was much more organised and widespread than we had initially thought. Investigations so far have established that the racket was active for at least an year, during which time, we believe that the loss to the national exchequer amounted to ₹150 crore.”
The ATS has also found that Mr. Allatur was wanted by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch in a similar case registered in 2017.
The officer said, “The scale of the racket can also be gauged from the fact that the accused used 2000 PRI lines in the racket. A single PRI line enables a small call centre to route a large number of calls at the same time through the internet.”
According to investigating officers, the accused would route calls made by Indians staying in the Middle East to their kin staying in India to avoid paying the high international tariff. As calls made through the SIM box technology cannot be tracked or traced, the bigger concern for law enforcement agencies is the possibility of this technology being used by criminal or terrorist elements, officers said.