2 illegal VoIP exchanges busted in Noida, Kerala

The Mumbai police and Military Intelligence of Jammu and Kashmir in a joint operation busted two illegal VoIP (voice over internet protocol) exchanges and SIM boxes in Noida and Kerala which are suspected to have been used by Pakistan's secret service agency ISI to seek information from defence personnel.

In September, some defence personnel received calls from suspicious numbers seeking information related to important installations. The callers used a fictitious identity and the involvement of the ISI was suspected.

The use of VoIP meant that while the defence personnel were getting calls from Pakistan, it used to show that the call was coming from an Indian number. The joint investigation revealed the illegal exchanges which used to route calls coming from Pakistan to local numbers, which were then used to extract information from defence persons. These raids were conducted on Thursday and at least one accused was arrested from Changermakulam, Ker-ala.

“During the raid two functional SIM boxes were recovered with 100 slots each and 200 SIM cards, along with two routers, three modems, antennae, batteries and connectors from Noida, Uttar Pradesh and Changaramukulam, Kerala,” said sources.

These exchanges converted international voice calls originating from Pakistan into local GSM calls using the Chinese SIM boxes (boxes fitted with GSM SIM cards of local cellular service providers), said sources.

These SIM boxes also used dynamic IMEI system, which made it difficult to track.