In a joint operation, Delhi police and telecom department busted a racket, which allegedly converted international calls into local ones, posing threat to national security, said a senior officer on Thursday.
“We have identified the people operating the exchange. They will soon be arrested. The illegal telephone exchange converted international calls into local calls, causing revenue loss to the government,” said the officer.
He said after getting tip-off regarding illegal telephone exchange operating in Central Delhi’s Daryaganj, a raid was conducted along with officials of telecom department.
In the raid, they seized large numbers of routers, servers, SIP trunk, fake identities (for buying mobile phones) and other illegal equipment from the spot.
A person — employed as caretaker of the premises — has been detained, the officer said, adding that the main culprits in the case are absconding.
‘Low cost calls’
The police said that illegal telephone exchange is used by smugglers and hawala operators to avoid surveillance by security agencies. The operators charge commission for the service, and they promote “low cost” international calls to reach out to customers.
They usually have a set of regular customers to avoid getting caught.
