Sleuths of Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Wednesday arrested 11 persons and claimed to have busted an international call racket involved in spying on Army units in the country.
Giving details on the operation on Wednesday, IG (ATS) Aseem Arun said that following a tip-off and through electronic surveillance, a team dropped the net on 11 persons from lucknow, Sitapur, Hardoi and New Delhi who were found to be operating an international call racket by running parallel exchanges.
Arun said that action was taken on information by Jammu Kashmir Military Intelligence that Army units were getting calls for spying from these exchanges.
An FIR in this regard was registered in Gomti Nagar police station. A large number of SIM cards, mobile phones and laptops used in the clandestine operations were recovered from the accused.
Sources said that the gang used to gather information about vital Army installations, troop movements and deployments. The accused made calls to various Army stations posing as government officials and spying was done using mobile numbers with Direct Inward Dialing Network to route the calls.
The IG said that the spying agents were skipping legal international phone gateways to make such calls (for spying) and with the busting of the racket, it would now be difficult for them to operate.
“It will now make the work of terrorists or any spies difficult. The government and mobile companies will also be able to avoid losses to the tune of crores of rupees due to these dubious exchanges,” Arun said.
The IG explained that such exchanges provide facility to
those sitting abroad to make calls through internet. These calls are then converted to voice calls through SIM box and connected to receivers in India. However, the receivers could only see Indian numbers on their telephone screens.
aseem Arun said that action would be intensified against such persons with the help of Army and TERM (Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring). The ATS is likely to take custody remand of the accused to grill them further.