Fake telephone exchange unearthed

Kannur, Kerala, Mar 17 (UNI) The city police today busted a parallel fake telephone exchange in the city and seized the unauthorised equipment.

According to police, they seized the equipment from a room in Thakavara area in the city limits on a complaint filed by the vigilance officials of the Department of Telecom (DOCT) who arrived from Chennai.

Police said K P Ramesh had taken a VSNL broad band connection in December 2005 from the Telecom department with internet connection.

Using mechanical device he had been running 16 parallel connections for converting the international calls into local calls with the help of BPL sim card.

He had been paying only local call charges for the BSNL for the last three months resulting in a loss of Rs 42 lakh for the department, Police said.

With the mechanical device, he could maintain 16 parellel connections at a time using computer and internet connection, police said.

The seized equipment included voice over internet protocol equipment, fixed terminals, signal room equipment for parallel exchange and computer.

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