There are countless modus operandi the terrorists, religious fundamentalists, and anti-national operators apply to disintegrate and destabilise our country.
Parallel Telephone Exchange is one among them, a Hi-Tec method. This is what Police burst in Kerala in 2021, thanks to the tip-off from Intelligence Bureau. Those days, there were reports that Police had tracked eight parallel exchanges in Kozhikode. Calls from abroad which are received via internet broadband connections were converted to mobile calls within Bharat using Chinese devices. The gadgets police confiscated were capable of operating 32 SIM cards at a time.
These exchanges facilitated low-rated calls to and fro foreign countries. These phone calls cannot be recorded; hence quite apt for illegal and anti-national activities. International calls will appear as local calls. Naturally, they will cause huge loss to mobile service providers.
Now, the Crime Branch report to Kerala High Court discloses that hawala activities of several crores were camouflaged with parallel telephone exchanges. These transactions were threats to the country’s security and economic stability. The operations were carried out with Chinese devices. Transactions are being investigated by Enforcement Directorate (ED) too. Kozhikode Crime Branch informed that they got the I P number of one server the accused operators used.
The report submitted before the Court contains the details of the countries, including Pakistan, linked with the money transactions. It was submitted to counter the Anticipatory Bail Application filed for Niyas Kuttasserry, the fifth accused. He allegedly facilitated Cloud Server and Call Routes for the accused. The same man is reported to have operated a Virtual sensor. When Niyas came to know that investigation officers had traced the sensor, he fled the country on December 6, 2021. A Look Out Notice has been issued in this regard. Jurais, Shabeer, Krishnaprasad and Abdul Gafoor are the other four (1 to 4) accused.
The investigation team traced Niyas with the help of a diary. They got it from the Links IT Solutions, owned by Shabeer, the accused. The I P number of the server and other relative information were obtained from this diary. I P number was generated in Interletica Systems Private Ltd., Aurangabad. They rent out servers. This institution had rented out numerous server spaces to several institutions. It was found that Rs 38.56 crores had been transacted through the Payment Wallet system.
Niyas was alleged to have handled 582 call routes. Call routes were also given to people in Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Turkey. They are the countries infamous for widespread terrorist activities, and the human trafficking Investigation Team’s preliminary assumption suggests that Niyas had handled more than Rs 46 crores in connection with the activities mentioned above.
US dollars and currencies of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Oman, UAE and Saudi Arabia had been transacted in this manner. More than Rs 10 crores had been reportedly handed over to the people linked with parallel telephone exchanges. Rs 23.69 lakhs had been transferred to Shabeer’s bank account.
The investigation team had confiscated 29 GSM Gateway equipment capable of converting international calls into local calls and 794 fake SIM cards. They had been purchased, showing addresses in Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam, etc.
There were reports that parallel exchanges were operating in Malappuram, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, etc. It is also reported that such exchanges are still active in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune. Kerala Police registered a case on July 2, 2021.
