Parallel exchange case: Chinese engineers trained accused in Dubai

Kozhikode: Exploring further into the parallel exchange cases registered across the nation, the Kerala state Crime Branch has found that all the accused in the case were trained in Dubai by Chinese engineers.

The training had taken place in an undisclosed location in Dubai and there is a lobby operating in Dubai to lure people into it. Chinese experts trained them on the ways to operate the devices and the precautions to be taken to avoid getting caught. They were even trained to face police interrogation, if caught.

The accused also received financial aid from the lobby for meeting the expenses to install the devices for the exchange. The Crime Branch suspects an ‘international conspiracy’ behind the thriving parallel exchanges in the nation.  Crime Branch has found that all the arrested had visited Dubai for undergoing training. WhatsApp audio messages of Chinese engineers speaking in English to provide training have also been recovered from the phones seized from the accused.

Now the Crime Branch plans to seek the help of Center for Development and Advanced Computing (C-DAC) for holding a scientific examination of data seized from them.  Crime Branch has been probing around 20 cases associated with this across the state. However, they couldn’t trace so far any of the details of the thousands of phone calls made through the exchanges. According to police, Ibrahim Pullattil sold a 'call route' to a Pakistani national and two routes to Chinese nationals for Rs 20 lakhs. The investigating officers give special focus on the Pakistani route and help of C-DAC will be sought to decode the details of all calls came from Pakistan.

The investigating officers said we cannot consider this just as a telecom fraud to make cheap international calls. “We have so many apps now to make calls for free. For making calls, we actually do not need parallel exchange. In fact, these exchanges facilitated room for huge hawala and drug deals.” All the accused in the case are very brilliant and they were trained in advance to face police integration once caught. “Questioning them would not yield any good result as we lack expertise in technology. The experts from C-DAC may be able to help us in this regard.”

The currency counting machines seized from the house of Ibrahim Pullattil and other accused in the case evoke suspicion of huge hawala deals.

Subscriber Identity Module Box (SIMbox)is  a device used as part of a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateway installation in the unit, that works as parallel exchange. The accused received SIMbox for free from China. The arrested had visited China to get this device mainly from three companies, Dinstar, Skytel and Goyibe. A SIMbox costs Rs 80,000 to Rs 3 lakhs depending upon the number of SIM cards it can contain.

The investigating officers say, China provides these devices for free to promote all sorts of antisocial activities to weaken the nation. The accused got fake SIM cards from Odisha and Bengal to activate the SIMbox. After activating the Simbox, they sold 'call routes' to people from various nations, mainly Dubai, Tanzania, Uganda, Eritrea, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and China. Once linking is done, a buyer can make calls. The call made using VoIP goes through the SIMbox and reaches the recipient as a local call. Since it is converted into a local call it would be extremely difficult to trace the origin.