The Gujarat Counterterrorism Squad (ATS) and the Vadodara Special Operations Group (SOG) jointly dismantled an illegal VoIP exchange network in the Vasana neighborhood of Vadodara on Saturday and arrested one of the four defendants in the case. .
ATS caught Shehzad Mohammad Rafiq Malek, a resident of Tandalja neighborhood in Vadodara, as well as SOG at a store in a shopping complex named Siddharth Excellence, located on Vasna Road in Vadodara, where the alleged VoIP call center had been installed.
A statement from Gujarat ATS said: “Shehzad’s interrogation revealed the involvement of three other people, namely Haroon Abdul Natwani, Ishaq Sachin Raj and Jinny Anil Vaswani – all residents of the Mira-Bhayander area of the district of Thane of Maharashtra. Vaswani is the tenant of the Vasna Road store, where the so-called VoIP call clearinghouse has been set up, but the racket is operated from Maharashtra.
The ATS also said the defendants chose the illegal VoIP exchange because it helps conceal the identity of international numbers and prevent the call from being traced back to the original source.
“This act is illegal under India’s Telegraph Act and not only causes financial loss to the nation, but poses a threat to national security,” ATS said. ATS and SOG seized a JioFi router, WiFI router, processor and other computer hardware and software worth Rs 46,750 and booked a case at JP Road police station in Vadodara.
Police in Vadodara Town say the accused falsified computer source documents and illegally used a postpaid primary rate (PRI) interface line for VoIP call routing, in violation of the Directorate’s rules. telecommunications (DoT). A PRI is an end-to-end digital telecommunications connection that allows 23 simultaneous transmissions of voice, data, or video traffic between the network and the user.
Gujarat ATS chief Himanshu Shukla said the department stumbled upon racketeering while investigating another sensitive case.
“We cannot divulge the details of the nature of the calls made by these men, but illegal VoIP calls are only used for malicious purposes. It helps conceal identity and communication for many organized crimes is done through VoIP. This gang was making calls to everyone who paid them and we are looking into the details, ”said the ATS chief.
The defendants were convicted under sections of the IPC for cheating (420) and complicity in crime (114), forgery of computer documents under section 65 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, establishing and maintaining or working a telegraph not authorized under section 20 of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885, and for possession of wireless telegraph apparatus in violation of the law under section 6 of the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act 1933.
