THANE: With the arrest of four people, the city police on Tuesday claimed to have burst four illegal telephone exchanges at Kausa in Mumbra township in Thane district, the police said.
Acting on a tip-off that illegal telephone exchanges were being operated from the flats of a building in the Kadar Palace, around 0400 hrs, the police team raided the flats and found that exchanges were in operation.
Equipment worth Rs 14 lakh were seized from them which included electrical equipment used to make VOIP calls.
The seizure included SIM cards of different companies and this has resulted in losses of revenue to the mobile operators and the government it was stated.
The operators routed the international calls through these exchanges using the VOIP calls the police said.
They have been booked under sections 420 rw 34 of the IPC and also sections 4 and 20 of Indian Telegraph act of 1885 and also section 3 and 6 of the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1933.
The are identified as Sehzad Nissar Shaikh (38), Shakil Iqlaq Ahmed Shaikh (40), Mohammad Halim Mukhtar Ahmed Khan (36) and Wasimullah Iqlakh Ahmed Shaikh (30), the police added.