Five held for running illegal phone exchange

The action came following a complaint from Department of Telecom regarding the suspected operation of SIM boxes in Chennai, which a set of mobile numbers which are routed throughthe SIM box.

A SIM box is an equipment that can route international calls through the voice over IP (VoIP) connection. Through this, the overseas calls are connected as local traffic, allowing the box’s operator to bypass international rates.

This undercuts the tariff charged by local mobile network, thus causing revenue loss to the mobile network in India and thus to the Union government.

A joint raid was carried out by officials from Telecom department and Crime Branch CID sleuths on Thursday at the premises of Drav Telecommunication located at Thangam Colony, Anna Nagar West.

The team found that an illegal tower was erected there to commit the crime. During the search, the joint team found 21 SIM boxes, 16 network routers, nearly 1,500 SIM cards, foreign currencies, mobiles and Wi-Fi dongles, which were seized. The entire clandestine network of Illegal phone tower has been dismantled, the CB-CID added.

A case was registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including for cheating along with provisions of Information Technology Act, and Sections 20 and 21 of Telegraph Act.