NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, OCT 28
With the advancement in telecommunications, tech-savvy criminals have turned it into a goldmine to make quick bucks in Ahmedabad.
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has busted an illegal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone exchange here and arrested a man with 139 SIM cards, an official said on Wednesday.
Based on a tip-off, an ATS team raided a flat in Sakib Apartment in Juhapura area of the city on Tuesday and apprehended Shahid Saiyad, who was running the illegal call centre using four SIM boxes, a LAN switch, a laptop and a router, said Pinakin Parmar, superintendent of police, Gujarat ATS.
A SIM box is a device that can hold multiple SIM cards and is used as part of a VoIP gateway installation.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that the call centre was set up by Najib PP, a native of Kerala, with the help of his aides Amit, a resident of Pune and one Sohail, who hails from Goa, the official said.
“Najib was running the call centre remotely from Bahrain. Since video calls using applications such as WhatsApp are banned in Gulf countries, Indians living there have to pay as per ISD rates to make international calls here. Najib and his men make money by selling calling cards and sending commissions to Shahid, Amit and Sohail here,” Parmar said.
The police have recovered 139 SIM cards installed in the SIM Boxes to generate the VoIP calls, he said.
