Bengaluru police bust racket converting international calls to local calls in IT corridor

Indian Express

20 hours ago

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Bengaluru police said on Tuesday that it unearthed a racket where international calls were illegally routed as local calls, allegedly to enable cybercrimes. The investigation started after a representative of Vodafone Idea Limited filed a police complaint stating that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had alerted the telecom operator about an illegal SIM box operation suspected of cybercriminal activities.
The police said they recovered six SIM boxes, 133 SIM cards, 12 data storage servers, one networking router/switch, and other related equipment, with the total value estimated at approximately Rs 10 lakh. Preliminary investigations suggest that the seized SIM cards were actively used in various cybercrimes, they added.
A SIM box is a specialised device containing multiple SIM cards designed to route international calls back into domestic networks, disguising them as local calls. This practice not only compromises national security but also causes significant financial losses to both government revenues and legitimate telecom operators.
According to a police officer, the DoT's investigation traced the suspicious activity to the International Tech Park in Bengaluru's Whitefield area. The central department's analysis revealed that 107 mobile numbers issued by Vodafone Idea Limited were suspected of being used in these illegal SIM box operations.
The CCB's internal verification discovered that all 107 SIM cards had been issued to Gleam Global Services India Private Limited, a company that allegedly served as a front for an elaborate fraud.
Seemant Kumar Singh, Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru, urged data centre owners to conduct thorough background verification before renting facilities. 'In this case, the owners had no clue about the misuse,' he said.
An engineer previously arrested in Bengaluru for allegedly defrauding cybercrime victims by offering fictitious legal assistance online has confessed to his role in installing the SIM box infrastructure at Iron Mountain Data Centre in Whitefield, according to the police.
The arrested engineer, Chota Ahammed Mubaraq, also known as Tufail, has revealed that two conspirators, currently abroad, were directing his activities remotely, the police added.
A CCB officer said the police would take steps to issue lookout circulars for Tufail's overseas accomplices.
Tufail, a BE graduate, is originally from Tamil Nadu but was residing in Kothanur, Bengaluru, the police said.