Bengal Police STF bust racket running illegal pvt telephone exchange, eight arrested

Kolkata: The Special Task Force (STF) of Bengal Police has busted a racket that was allegedly running an illegal private telephone exchange by using SIM box machines and fake SIM cards and arrested eight persons, including a Bangladeshi national.

Special STF teams, on August 10 and 11, based on secret information, conducted coordinated raids at various places in South Bengal areas — Nadia, Howrah, and North 24-Parganas.

During the search, 33 SIM box machines, 17 routers and about 6,000 SIM cards were recovered. The places raided are Chakdah, Krishnaganj, and Krishnanagar in Nadia, Bongaon and Petrapole in North 24-Parganas and Malipanchghora and Liluah in Howrah.

A senior police official informed that among those arrested, Asadur Rehman (41) hails from Jhinaidaha, Bangladesh.

A complaint was lodged by STF of Bengal at Malipanchghora police station, in Howrah in this matter and a specific case has been registered at Malipanchghora police station under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Indian Telegraph Act 1885 and of the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act.

The details of this illegal SIM box running racket, connections with overseas elements, possibilities of nexus with anti-national activities, criminal network are also being probed through investigation.