KOZHIKODE: The city crime branch team probing the Kozhikode illegal parallel telephone exchange case has received more evidence proving suspected international terrorist links of fraudsters.
With the fresh development, the team will submit a report to state police chief for further probe by a national agency considering the national security angle.
Probe by a city crime branch team led by Assistant Commissioner T P Sreejith had found that the gang operated the illegal telephone exchange not just for financial benefit. It is suspected that anti-national activities were committed by them.
"The gang had direct links with nine countries -Dubai, Tanzania, Uganda, Eritrea, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and China. Of which, the gang offered call routes to four countries-Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and Afghanistan - while they operated the illegal service in other countries in tie-up with similar criminal gangs there. Further, they operated similar units in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi and Mumbai. Over the past five years, numerous calls had been flowing through the illegal network. More scientific tracking is required to expose details of these calls. However, in a preliminary assessment, we could not rule out the links of anti-social and terrorist outfits with the gang", a police source said.
According to police, the parallel telephone exchange had been functioning in the city for over 10 years, but it was active only in the last five years. Many criminal gangs had used the illegal service for criminal activities, including recent kidnapping of man in Koyilandy. Gold smugglers had also used the illegal exchange for their operations.