A combined operation by Military Intelligence (MI) and Bengaluru city police resulted in the arrest of two men suspected of targeting Indian army telephone exchanges and soldiers for the purpose of gathering classified information.
The accused, Ibrahim M Pullatti, 36, a Kerala native, and V Gautam, 27, from Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, were residing in Bengaluru’s BTM Layout and used 30 electronic devices with 32 sim cards each to establish an illegal exchange at each of the six locations in BTM Layout.
They illegally converted international phone calls into local, and indulged in cheating and other activities, affecting the country’s security. Most of the calls made were to Dubai, police said.
The entire racket was busted by the Army’s Southern Command’s Military Intelligence Department, which intercepted a call received at an Army base in eastern India a few weeks ago. During the call, a Pakistani spy masquerading as a senior official inquired for general details.
Thirty-two SIM box devices, which can use 960 SIM cards at a time, were seized from them.
Further investigation by the Military Intelligence Unit revealed that the duo set up similar telephone exchanges in other parts of Bengaluru and made calls to several military installations in the past, including the Movement Control Office (MCO) and the Principal Comptroller of Defence Accounts (PCDA).
(with inputs from TOI)
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