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The Vigilance and Telecom Monitoring Cell of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) with the help of Local Police has busted 12 Illegal Exchanges through out the country in the month of January 2005 on the basis of information received from the General Public on the toll free number 1600-110-420.
Out of these 12 reported cases, 5 were found in Chennai, 4 in Mumbai and one each in Delhi, Hyderabad, Mohali (Punjab). A total of 306 lines of various service providers have been found involving 188 connections from Reliance, 84 of Bharti, 16 of MTNL, 14 of BSNL and 4 of Tata’s. Nine Internet Service Providers were found to have given Internet Leased Links in these cases out of which Internet Operator-wise, 9 ILL pertained to VSNL and rest one ILL, each were of Reliance, Sify, C-Tel, Bharti, Netlink, RPG, Coinjinx, Icara. The Investigating Agencies have arrested 13 persons so far and have registered cases under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Indian Telegraphs Act. The sophisticated equipments used in the setting up of these illegal exchange have been seized. DOT is examining lapses on the part of various operators so as to take penal action against them which may be deterrent for these operators.
It was estimated that these illegal setups were causing a revenue loss of Rs. 3.3 crore per month until their detection. It may be mentioned that the setting up of toll-free number has fetched better results in the instant detection of illegal calls as numerous genuine calls are being received daily by various Regional Centres of Vigilance and Telecom Monitoring Cell of DoT.
RM/AMA – 110205 Illegal exchange consolidated
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