Illegal call routing racket busted in Hyderabad, 1 held

A racket in routing of overseas calls using internet technology has been busted here with the arrest of a 32-year old man, police said Saturday.

The man had allegedly been operating the racket for the past seven months with the help of Chinese-made equipment and SIM cards, they said.

Telephone calls originating in foreign countries were illegally diverted to the local numbers using the equipment, thereby causing loss to the government.

The man, arrested Friday following information about the illegal activity, was diverting telephone calls violating the Indian Telegraph Act, a police official said adding it was an economic offence.

Mostly the calls are from countries where voice and video call applications such as "Skype" or WhatsApp were not permitted, police said adding further investigation was on.

Replying to a question, police ruled out terrorism angle in the racket.

Diversion of voice calls over internet using the Voice Over Internet Protocol has been a thriving illegal business as it robs the government of revenue from telecom service providers.

Several call routing rackets had been busted in various parts of the country, including in the city, over the past years.