BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terror Squad has revealed that fifteen states may be aiding Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) by funding its spying operations in India. Over 100 parallel or illegal telephone exchanges are operating from obscure cubbyholes, it added. According to a senior Police official, out of the 100-odd phone exchanges operating with the help of Chinese SIM boxes/SIM banks, more than 50 are located in South and East India, particularly Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Kerala and Karnataka. He added, the remaining 50-plus exchanges are located in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, but the maximum 10-15 such exchanges are operating in Hyderabad. “This has led to a loss of 3,000 crore to these exchanges that belongs to the country’s telecom department by illegally converting international calls emanating from VoIP gateways into local GSM calls”, the official said. A MP ATS officer said, “Calls were made into India at rates of `2-3 per minute with the help of these exchanges and this caused a loss of 35-40 paise per minute to telecom department, but earned profits ranging between `1.5 lakh and `2 lakh per month to the exchange operators”. `1,400-plus crore could have been inflicted by exchanges in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, sources say about this loss. Earlier the MP Police have shared location specific details of exchanges with the central intelligence agencies. Raids by Anti-Terror Squad at these exchanges operating from Bhopal, Gwalior and Jabalpur towns last month revealed that these exchanges were being used by ISI handlers in Pak to dupe people in India via phone lottery fraud. Rs. `20 crore worth crime money was being parked in bank accounts in Satna and Rewa districts in Madhya Pradesh by three local men for commission, Police said. Through a man called Mohammed Jabbar a portion of the crime money was also being channelized back to Pakistan, who was into export-import trade in Old Delhi’s Jama Masjid area, the officer said. Mr. Sanjeev Shami, Inspector General of Madhya Pradesh ATS said, ‘’So far 15 people have been arrested in the case”.]]>
