The Ministry of Communications revealed that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) disconnected 3.40 crore mobile numbers with the help of its Sanchar Saathi initiative while responding to a question in the Lok Sabha on April 2, 2025.
What is the Sanchar Saathi Initiative?
The ministry launched the Sanchar Saathi initiative in May 2023 as an online portal. The initiative aims to empower citizens to register complaints regarding fraudulent connections, find out the number of mobile connections in their name, trace and block stolen mobile handsets, and verify International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers of handsets to check if they were ever stolen. DoT launched the Sanchar Saathi mobile app on January 1, 2025, as an extension of the portal.
What did the ministry say?
According to the answer provided by the ministry, DoT has disconnected 3.40 crore mobile numbers under the initiative. The disconnections were carried out using artificial intelligence analysis, citizen feedback, and stakeholder inputs. The question was asked by Dr. Mallu Ravi, a Lok Sabha member from Telangana, regarding the Sanchar Saathi mobile app.
The department has blocked the IMEI of 3.19 lakh mobile handsets and blacklisted 20,096 bulk SMS senders, the ministry further stated. As part of the initiative, 16.97 lakh WhatsApp accounts have also been disengaged, as they were associated with shared mobile connections, according to the written answer.
Past efforts:
As part of its efforts to curb fraudulent activities using telecom resources, the DoT had ordered app stores to take down apps that allow people to change their calling line identification (CLI) in February 2025. Tampering with CLI can invite either a penalty of up to Rs 50 lakh or imprisonment of up to three years, or both.
In December 2024, the DoT announced that it had reduced spoofed international calls from Indian numbers by 90% in two months. Efforts to curb the issue began as part of the ‘International Incoming Spoofed Calls Prevention System’ in October 2024. According to the department, the system was able to identify about 1.35 crore spoofed incoming international calls that appeared to originate from Indian phone numbers.
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