BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh Police’s state cyber cell has busted an alleged racket involved in illegally sourcing call detail records (CDRs) from telecom service providers and selling them to clients for money.
Three men, including an assistant sub-inspector posted with Indore City Police and two operators of private detective agencies in Indore and Bhopal, have been arrested so far.
The accused are being questioned by cyber cell officials to identify other members of the alleged network.
According to police sources, investigators have traced more people linked to the racket, most of whom run private detective agencies in Bhopal, Indore and other cities of the state.
These agencies were allegedly spying on individuals, including influential people, on behalf of clients who paid them heavily.
As part of tracking their targets, the agencies allegedly sourced CDRs with the help of the arrested ASI, who was posted in an important specialised unit of the Indore Police Commissionerate.
Investigators are now trying to identify other members of the network, including people working with telecom service providers who may have illegally supplied CDRs to private detective agencies through the arrested ASI.
Importantly, CDRs can only be obtained by police through designated technical IDs and nodal officers authorised to seek records from telecom companies as part of criminal investigations.
“No private persons, including those claiming to be running private detective agencies, can get the CDRs through the TSPs,” a senior police officer associated with the probe said on Wednesday.
The case assumes significance as investigators suspect that authorised police technical IDs may have been misused to access CDRs for private clients in exchange for large sums of money.