Mumbai: The Thane Police Crime Branch on Tuesday busted a massive racket in Bhiwandi where international calls made to Indian numbers were being routed through SIM boxes to mask the location of the callers. State and central agencies are conducting parallel investigations in the matter to find out if the illegal telephone exchanges have been used by underworld or terrorist elements.
According to the police, the lid was blown off the racket when an Ambarnath-based businessman received an extortion call from fugitive gangster Suresh Pujari earlier this year.
“After the businessman approached us, we traced the caller’s number to Orissa. We found that the call was made from outside India, but had been routed through a local SIM box, which we traced to Bhiwandi,” said a Crime Branch officer.
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The police identified 30 locations in Bhiwandi where illegal telephone exchanges were being run. “A team of 10 officers and 100 constables conducted simultaneous raids at these location early on Tuesday. Nine accused were arrested and 25 SIM boxes and 438 SIM cards of various cellular service providers were seized,” the officer said.
SIM boxes can receive a call from any number, international or domestic, and route it through a local SIM card before forwarding it to the intended recipient, thus enabling the caller to mask his location from the recipient and the authorities. The police said no technology is currently available to trace the location of a call made through SIM boxes.
“As such calls do not get registered with the Department of Telecommunication, they cause loss of revenue to the government. The accused might have routed hundreds of calls through these SIM boxes, and the revenue loss would be massive,” said another officer.
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The Thane Crime Branch is in touch with multiple agencies who are also investigating the case to find out if the accused have aided underworld or terrorist activities, said sources.
The police are also interrogating the arrested persons to find out how they procured SIM cards in such a large number. “There are numerous gangs that obtain SIM cards in bulk, either with inside help from employees of cellular service provider companies or by taking advantage of the lax verification measures taken by distributors while selling SIM cards. These gangs sell the SIM cards to anyone who needs them. The accused are likely to have ties with such gangs,” the officer said.