The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Tuesday seized 12 more SIM boxes from the accused arrested last week for allegedly running an illegal telephone exchange.
The Mumbai unit of the ATS had, on August 9, arrested seven people from various locations in Mumbai, and seized nine SIM boxes, 513 SIM cards and a server. The men, according to a preliminary estimate by the Department of Telecommunications, have caused a loss of ₹37.5 crore to the national exchequer through the racket.
ATS officials said the fresh seizures were made on the basis of the interrogation of two of the accused.
“We seized 10 SIM boxes from a commercial space owned by Sameer Merchant in Dongri, while two more were seized from the residence of Faizal Batliwala in Mira Road. The SIM boxes are being analysed for further evidence,” a senior police officer said.
Apart from Mr. Merchant and Mr. Batliwala, Nazim Khan, Sameer Darvez, Hussain Sayyed, Mandar Achrekar, Sibtain Merchant and Imtiaz Sheikh, have also been arrested in the case.
The officer said the fresh seizures indicate that the scope of the racket might be larger than what the investigating team had initially estimated.
“The accused had been operating out of various locations in Shivaji Nagar, Masjid Bunder, Dongri, Worli, Panvel and Kalyan, where they had set up commercial spaces as a front for the racket. We are now finding out where the 12 SIM boxes seized on Tuesday were being used and if there are more locations from where the racket was being run,” he said.
The interrogation has also yielded more names connected to the racket, and the investigating team is now working on tracing and apprehending them. The SIM boxes are mostly obtained from abroad through the internet, and the sale is conducted through several layers, making it challenging to trace the source.
“As the calls routed through the SIM boxes are transmitted in the form of digital data packets, getting an exact sense of the number of calls is next to impossible. We can only get an idea based on the interrogation and the number of SIM boxes seized. Searches are still under way in other locations,” the officer said.
