Indian police: Saudi-based Bangladeshi man behind illegal phone exchange racket

Indian police claim a Bangladeshi man, operating out of Saudi Arabia, is the mastermind of a recently busted illegal telephone exchange racket that allowed Indian expats in the Middle East make cheap international calls back home. The VoIP calls were made bypassing the country’s international calling gateways, which meant that they would not be detected by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Apart from posing security threats, the unmonitored and illegal calls also cost the DoT an estimated Tk100 crore in loss, reports The Indian Express. Police identified the mastermind Bangladeshi citizen as Mohan. Five members of the racket operating in India were arrested by the Anti Terrorism Squad and Mumbai police from Govandi and Trombay last week. An officer involved in the investigation said the five men had told them that Mohan coordinated with Mohammad Nazim Khan, one of the accused. “Mohan, through his men, was pushing the calling cards through which these fraudulent calls were made to India from Saudi Arabia,” the officer was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. Nazim never met Mohan but the two kept in touch over phone. The officer said Indians working in Saudi Arabia looked for options to make cheap calls back home as WhatsApp was banned there. Mohan seized the opportunity. The racket charged as per local rates as the calls were not detected by the DoT and they did not have to pay any tariff.