by Srikanth Aluri

VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada police busted an illegal call routing exchange racket using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and took seven persons into custody. It was found that these exchanges were being exploited by rogue elements based in Pakistan to extract sensitive information from military officials through spoofing technology. 

The Military Intelligence (MI) wing identified that these exchanges are being operated from Vijayawada. The city police formed a special team with Task Force and Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) sleuths to crack the case. The accused, all below the age of 30 years, have been apprehended and interrogated at an undisclosed location.

In a major breakthrough, the Vijayawada police busted an illegal call routing exchange racket using Voice over Internet Protocol (Vo-IP) and took seven persons into custody. It was found that these exchanges were being exploited by rogue elements based in Pakistan to extract sensitive information from military officials through spoofing technology.

The Military Intelligence (MI) wing identified that these exchanges are being operated from Vijayawada. The city police formed a special team with Task Force and Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) sleuths to crack the case. The accused, all below the age of 30 years, have been apprehended and interrogated at an undisclosed location.

MI has identified that the military officials were getting calls from Pakistan using these VoIP exchanges to extract sensitive information. Perpetrators from Pakistan reportedly spoke to the officials impersonating as their higher officials and sought key information. Searches were conducted in three different places in Gunadala area late on Tuesday night and 230 SIM cards, three SIM boxes and a device used to route and morph the original caller identity have been seized.

Sources said accused may not have direct contact with perpetrators from Pakistan, who made the calls to military personnel. "The youth belong to medium income groups and do not have the kind of resources to collude directly with offshore terror elements," an investigating officer said.