Mumbai: ATS books Madanpura man for running illegal telephone exchange

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officials busted an illegal telephone exchange and booked a 45-year-old man for allegedly routing international calls on Indian mobile numbers with the use of a SIM box and cheating the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The agency officials also claimed that the calls routed by the accused could not be monitored and could pose a security threat.

According to the police, on February 25, officers of the Nagpada Unit of the ATS got a tip-off that a few persons at Madanpura in Nagpada area were running an illegal telephone exchange. A police team along with DoT officials and witnesses visited the room in a highrise building at Madanpura to carry out a search operation. The place was occupied by one Mohammad Salim Mohammad Idris Ansari.

The police found three boxes containing around 90 SIM cards. The ATS officials then enquired with Ansari about the source of the SIM boxes, to which he revealed that he had got them from one Talib alias Abu Talib Shaikh, a Bhiwandi resident. Ansari also told the police that he had been running the exchange for the past one year.

Through the exchange, calls from abroad were being converted into regular mobile calls by using SIM box technology. Local numbers would get displayed on the receiver’s phone, and the receiver would assume the caller is based within the country, which actually was not the case. These calls could not be monitored and could also be used by terrorist elements, said a police official.

A case under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code, sections 4 (exclusive privilege in respect of telegraphs, and power to grant licences), 20 (establishing, maintaining or working unauthorised telegraph), 25 (intentionally damaging or tampering with telegraphs) of the Indian Telegraph Act and sections 3 (prohibition of possession of wireless telegraphy apparatus without license) and 6 (offence and penalty) of the Indian Wireless Machinery Act has been registered.

Last month, the Thane ATS Unit and Bhiwandi police had arrested four people in connection with another illegal telephone exchange case. The police had then recovered six SIM boxes, six routers, and one mobile phone from their possession.