Bangalore resident in illegal Net Telephony racket

NEW DELHI: The Pune police have busted yet another Internet telephony racket

in the city. The city police last month had busted a racket run by Mactel Ltd,

which bypassed the official international subscriber dialing (ISD) service of

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) by offering illegal internet-based telephony.

Acting on a tip-off that a similar racket was being run in a different part

of the city, the city crime branch kept the offices of Sach Infotech

Telemarketing under surveillance. The overseas call service, allegedly run by

Sunil Subramanyam, was raided on Tuesday and a rich haul of sophisticated

equipment was unearthed. The police, however, could not get their hands on

Subramanyam who had vanished from his residence after the Mactel racket was

busted. The girls employed by him pleaded ignorance about the Internet telephony

operation.

Subramanyam, a resident of Bangalore and a marine engineer by training, had

set up the exchange in May this year by hiring bandwidth from Satyam Infoway,

erecting a tower and antennae at his office at Brahma House, taking 25 land

lines from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and 30 lines from Hughes.

"Subramanyam had made arrangements with companies in United States and

Canada for Internet telephony. The end-receiver here had no idea that his call

was bypassing VSNL," Inspector Dilip Shinde of the crime branch said.

According to the landline bills run by Sach Infotech, nearly one lakh calls

have been made from the office, which may constitute an estimated loss of Rs 15

lakh in terms of VSNL's international subscriber dialing (ISD) revenue.

No arrests have been made in this connection. A police team, which went to

Bangalore returned empty handed. The police have booked Subramanyam under

Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, Indian Telegraphic Act and Indian Wireless

Telegraphic Act.