Dehradun, Oct 29 The Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) has busted an alleged illegal digital telephone exchange operating under the name ‘NS Enterprise’ in Kashipur town of Udham Singh Nagar district, with one person arrested and another absconding, police said on Thursday.
The setup allegedly bypassed International Long Distance (ILD) gateways through Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) connections and facilitated automated calls, including those linked to suspected cyber fraud, officials said.
According to the STF, the probe revealed that 45,453 outgoing calls were made through the setup over a period of 21 days.
The STF and the Kumaon unit of the Cyber Crime cell, in coordination with a team from the Department of Telecommunications, conducted a technical inspection of the premises following inputs about the suspicious telecom setup.
Electronic equipment, call centre servers, pen drives and other digital evidence were seized during the operation, officials said.
“An illegal digital exchange set up has been busted in Kashipur where auto-generated calls were made by cyber fraudsters. One person has been arrested and one is at large. Gadgets, pen drives and call centre servers have been recovered from the setup. Further investigation is underway as cyber fraud has also taken place,” Inspector General STF Nilesh Bharne told PTI.
The arrested accused has been identified as Naimuddin, son of Zahid Hussain, a resident of Mankua Maqsoodpur under the jurisdiction of Dilari police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad district, officials said.
A case has been registered against him at the Cyber Crime Police Station (Kumaon) in Rudrapur under sections 318(4) and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, and sections 42(1) and 42(3) of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, they said.
The recovered equipment, digital logs and other evidence are being analysed to establish the nature of the alleged illegal activities and identify the roles of the accused’s associates and others who may be involved, the STF said. Further legal action will be taken based on the findings.
(PTI News)
