Bengaluru: Two nabbed for running 6 telephone exchanges to gather Army info

BENGALURU: A joint operation by the military intelligence (MI) and city police has led to the arrest of two persons running six illegal telephone exchanges, suspected to be targeting Indian army exchanges and personnel to gather information.
The accused are Ibrahim M Pullatti, 36, a native of Malappuram in Kerala and his associate V Gautam, 27, from Tirupur, Tamil Nadu.Both of them were residing in BTM Layout. The duo 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.
IP address in Bengaluru
Sources in the military intelligence (MI) said police were roped in after their team confirmed the illegal activities of the suspects after probing the matter for weeks.
“The tip-off about what was believed to be an illegal network first came from the Eastern Command. It was suspected to be targeting Indian army exchanges and personnel to illegally gather information and the IP address used was from Bengaluru. The Southern Command began investigating the matter in Bengaluru. From here, the local MI sleuths tracked down the latitude and longitude (location) of the suspects,” a source said. “We believe the suspects have links with one particular foreign country. Interrogations is on,” the source added.
The Central Crime Branch and the Anti-Terror Cell of Bengaluru police are handling the case.