ATS arrests 2 more in telephone exchange bust

Pune: The state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) on Monday arrested two more men on the charge of recruiting people and supplying SIM cards as part of an illegal telephone exchange at Kondhwa, which was busted on Aug 24-25.The ATS secured the custody of Abdul Kasim Siddiqui (34) and his accomplice Pravin Srivastav (29), residents of Bhiwandi and Lucknow respectively, from the Thane jail and produced them before a magisterial court. The court remanded the duo in police custody till Sept 13.On Tuesday, the investigating officer produced the three earlier arrested suspects — Naushad Siddiqui (32) from Kondhwa, Mohammed Ansari alias Sonu (29) from Bhiwandi, and Piyush Gajbhiye (29) from Wardha, arrested on Sept 3 and 4 —before the court following the end of their second remand. The court sent the trio in police remand till Sept 13.In the court, assistant public prosecutor Bodhini Shashikala told judicial magistrate first class S K Dugaonkar that the questioning of Abdul was essential because he had undergone training to run the illegal exchange and had enlisted the services of Naushad and Mohammed and trained them for its operation.She argued that Abdul had supplied boxes of SIM cards to Naushad and pleaded with the court for more time to establish the identity of the person responsible for funding him in purchasing the SIM cards and to trace the mastermind.She also sought time to confront the five suspects with each other to establish their individual role in the crime, such as to identify the online customers who paid money for generating one-time passwords (OTPs), because Srivastav had supplied 6,820 SIM cards to Abdul and Naushad, of which 3,788 cards were recovered in the rented flat of Naushad and another 77 cards were seized from him.The prosecution submitted that Naushad and two others, who were initially arrested, had revealed the involvement of the two other men absconding and sought time to arrest them. Naushad and Mohammed had transferred the money generated by creating OTPs into the bank account of Abdul, which was later converted into bitcoins.The prosecutor feared that more people may have been involved in running the telecom exchange and suspected that the racket may have spread in different parts of India.A team of officials from the ATS, the department of telecom and other units raided a first-floor rented flat at MA complex in Meethanagar of Kondhwa on Aug 24 and 25 and seized seven SIM boxes, 3,788 SIM cards, nine Wi-Fi routers, SIM box antennae and laptops. Naushad, an Standard XIII passout, was identified as the one operating the illegal facility and was arrested. Naushad hails from Uttar Pradesh. He grew up in Bhiwandi before shifting to Pune a year ago to operate the exchange. He told his neighbours that he worked as a painter. Naushad was taken to Mumbai, where a case under section 318 (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and under provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act and the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act was registered at the Kala Chowky ATS unit.