Major national security threat averted in Bengaluru; illegal SIM box exchange busted [details]

The Crime Branch conducted raids six locations in Bengaluru following intelligence inputs by Military Intelligence (MI) on illegal calls made to the Indian Army helpline numbers in West Bengal. The bust uncovered an illegal telephone network to route calls from operatives of terror outfits. The joint operation by the MI Southern Command and Bengaluru Police Crime Branch (ATC) led to the arrests of two suspects, 36-year-old Ibrahim Mullatti Bin Mohammed Kutty and 27-year-old Gowtham Bin Viswanathan.

Ibrahim hails from Mallapur in Kerala and Gautam is originally from Tamil Nadu's Tripur district, both operating from Bengaluru's BTM Layout area. According to the official statement, the accused used 30 electronic devices to install 32 SIM cards in six locations using more than 900 SIM cards to illegally convert ISD calls to local ones.

What is a SIM box and how it works?

A SIM box technology is used to route international calls as local calls. Each box has hundreds of GSM SIM cards. Using this technology, the box operator is able to bypass international rates charged by local mobile network operators and also pose a significant national security risk. Calls rerouted through SIM box will be masked with a local number, so, for instance, if a call from Pakistan will have a local number.

A mega-bust averts major threat

The joint task force busted a total of 32 SIM boxes from six locations in Bengaluru's BTM layout. There were 960 SIM cards in use in these SIM boxes. Even a single SIM box is capable of routing thousands of international dubious calls each day, which goes on to show the gravity of the situation. According to sources, the callers made several attempts to learn about the location and movement of Army contingents in the state of West Bengal. The suspicious activity was tipped off when the army officials in Siliguri flagged the suspicious nature of the calls to the helpline.

The Military Intelligence Unit has worked with local police to bust many such installations in the past. As recent as last month, Mumbai Crime Branch arrested a 38-year-old from Govandi for running an illegal telephone network based on inputs from J&K Military Intelligence. The calls were bring made to Army's civil exchange, seeking sensitive information about defence establishments in J&K and Indian troop movements in Ladakh.

The repercussions of such operations, if successful, can be severe. The timely action by local crime branch in various cities with MI's inputs save the day.