RIC's re-routing of intl calls being checked

Security agencies are scrutinising puported internal communication between top officials of the country's biggest telecom operator, Reliance Infocomm (RIC) to check whether national security was impacted in re-routing of international calls as local ones by the company.

RIC has been fined Rs 150 crore in March by Department of Telecom for re-routing calls, an action upheld by Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellete Tribunal (TDSAT), although the company has denied any wrong doings.

Well-placed sources said the agencies have collected over a hundred documents, including more than two dozen e-mails, purportedly exchanged between top officials of Reliance Infocomm about the operations of the Home Country Direct Service under which international calls were re-routed.

Informed sources said today that exercise is on to check veracity of the e-mails understood to have been collected since January this year from various places, including from the Company's head office in Mumbai.

The devlopment assumes importance in the wake of a top ranking Infocomm Official Akhil Gupta, who recently quit the company, blowing the whistle against the re-routing operations by reportedly sending some e-mails to Mukesh Ambani, the company Chairman.