Two held over illegal 'telephone exchange' in Bengaluru

In a joint operation, officials of the Military Intelligence unit of Southern Command of the Army and Anti Terrorism Cell (ATC) of Bengaluru police on Wednesday arrested two men who ran an unauthorised telephone exchange and seized a large number of devices used for converting international calls (ISD) to local calls.

Bengaluru (Karnataka): In a joint operation, officials of the Military Intelligence unit of Southern Command of the Army and Anti Terrorism Cell (ATC) of Bengaluru police on Wednesday arrested two men who ran an unauthorised telephone exchange and seized a large number of devices used for converting international calls (ISD) to local calls.

According to an official statement of Bengaluru police, the accused identified as Gautham Viswanathan (27), a native of Tirupur district in Tamil Nadu, and Ibrahim Mullatti Bin Mohammed Kutty (36) a native of Malappuram district in Kerala, had illegally created telephone exchanges in six places in BTM (Byrasandra, Tavarekere, and Madivala) layout in Bengaluru by "placing several mobile SIM cards into electronic devices, converting foreign phone calls into local calls, defrauding the telecommunication network, and disrupting the country's security."

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"Preliminary investigations have revealed that the detainees, used 30 electronic devices to install 32 SIM cards in six locations of the BTM layout, using more than 900 mobile SIM cards, unauthorizedly converting International (ISD) phone calls into local calls, and conducting security and other unauthorized activities," the statement said.

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The ATC officials have registered a case with the Bengaluru city cyber crime police station and are continuing their investigation. "Investigations are continuing to find out how many are still bending the network," police added.

(ANI)