TIRUPATI: Alipiri police have arrested a six-member gang for allegedly operating an illegal telephone exchange racket, and converted international calls into local ones. Following the complaint filed by Department of Telecommunications director (security) GV Manoj Kumar on an illegal telecom set-up working in Tirupati, the police, led by CI B Devendra Kumar, raided a place near Leelamahal Centre and took six persons into custody. Besides SIM boxes, they also seized VoIP machines.
According to the complaint, security vertical of Department of Telecom (AP), Vijayawada, which deals with curbing illegal activities/control over clandestine operation of telecom networks, had received inputs from their sources that certain SIMs are suspected to be used in SIM boxes to illegally convert international VoIP calls into local calls.
He furnished five mobile numbers that are used for this illegal activity, in his complaint. Manoj Kumar said that they have observed the suspected mobile numbers working from the mobile towers located at Leelamahal Centre in Tirupati. The illegal operators allegedly used the mobile numbers to convert international VoIP calls to local ones, evading the network of long-distance operators.