Man booked for running illegal telephone exchange

The accused was allegedly misusing lease lines of Tata Telecom to route international calls to Indian numbers

The Tata Telecom Services has lodged a criminal offence with the police against a man for allegedly misusing lease lines of Tata Telecom to route international calls to Indian numbers, thereby causing revenue loss to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). According to the police sources, the complainant in the case is Dhananjay Yadav (42), who works at Tata Telecom Services Limited. On January 20, an information was received by Yadav from the Hyderabad-based office of the telecom company, that at a private office in DV Marg in Vasai, by using Tata Telecom Primary Rate Interface and internet, was illegally routing international calls to Indian numbers.

"The said information was then communicated to the police. On the basis of the said complaint, on February 02, Yadav along with the office of the DoT and police conducted a raid at a private office at Vasai. On inspecting the server room of the office the police found a device in which Tata Internet Leased Line and Tata SIP PRI lines were unauthorisedly linked since December 08 last year. Due to this, international calls were illegally routed to Indian numbers through illegal international gateway. This resulted in revenue loss to the DoT," said an officer from Manikpur police, refusing to divulge more details, stating that a probe is underway.

The police have questioned a senior official of the accused company. When officials asked him about the alleged illegal gateway, he could not give any satisfactory reply. The police seized the device for further investigation. When contacted, the complainant in the case refused to comment on the case.

A case has been registered against L Coutinho under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 4 (Exclusive privilege in respect of telegraphs, and power to grant licences), 20 (Establishing, maintaining or working unauthorised telegraph) and 25 (Intentionally damaging or tampering with telegraphs) of The Indian Telegraph Act.