Crime Branch likely to take over parallel phone exchange probe

KOCHI: The police, which busted 14 parallel telephone exchanges functioning across Ernakulam district on August 1, has decided to hand over the probe to the Crime Branch. The decision was taken after the police investigation revealed that the case had international ramifications, as the illegal telephone exchanges diverted international calls as local calls. Sources of several phone calls are also not yet known, said a senior police official.

“We have referred the matter to the police headquarters and an order is expected soon. At present, a special team under Chalakudy DySP is investigating the case,” said the official. The Koratty police had raided various parts of the district in the wee hours of August 1 and busted the gang that operated the illegal exchanges. Three persons, natives of Koratty and Angamaly, were arrested and the equipment they used seized. The trio was questioned for several days and later granted bail. “The illegal telephone exchanges operated by the accused diverted thousands of international calls as local calls in the past several months,” said the official.

The police suspect the telephone exchanges operating in Ernakulam have direct links with a similar gang caught from Kozhikode last month. The official said Crime Branch is probing the case and there is a possibility the two cases will be clubbed.Police officials also claim that similar telephone exchanges are operating clandestinely in other parts of the state and are yet to be identified. 

“This is an organised operation run with the assistance from people abroad. In the Kozhikode case, it is suspected that anti-national elements used the channel for communication purposes. Though this has not yet emerged in the Koratty case, we cannot rule it out as all the numbers could not be identified. We have handed over the seized devices for forensic analysis after which more information will be received,” the officer said.

Seized items
The Koratty police had seized 14 SIM boxes, 11 routers, over 100 SIM cards and 50 cables from the accused. Each SIM box acts like a telephone exchange. The handlers of such gangs sell coupons to NRIs for making calls through illegal channels.

The risk factor 
The parallel telephone exchanges are operated by diverting international internet calls as local calls using call routers and broadband connections. This way, the receiver will get a call from a local number instead of an international number. This is cheaper and, most importantly, telecom companies will be in the dark about such internet calls. Such a communication route can be adopted for anti-national activities. Each SIM box can operate multiple SIM cards using which hundreds of calls can be diverted at a time. The police say this unauthorised mode of communication is mostly used by people engaged in hawala and gold smuggling operations fearing that their phone calls may get traced by various agencies.