Mobile bill of Rs 11 lakh in 2 days,2 held

Suspects Asadullah Mohammed Hanif Khan (20) and Shamsad Alam Mukhtar Alam Munsari (20) are natives of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh and currently residing at Ghorpadi gaon,primarily an Army area. Police said the suspects are linked to a racket of making money through international phone calls by illegal means. Investigations are also on to know if they have any terror links.

The duo had obtained a SIM card of Idea Cellular. Hemant Sharad Bhalchandra,a senior executive with Idea,had lodged a complaint of cheating and forgery at Vishrambag police station in this case. According to the police,the suspects approached Idea franchise S R K Mobility in Vishranwadi on January 15 this year and placed a request for a new post-paid SIM card for a number that originally belonged to an Idea customer Smita Viju Nair.

The suspects told the outlet employees that Smita’s SIM card had got damaged and she had sent them for a new one. One of the suspects,who called himself Lekharaj Jhon,gave a copy of his PAN card along with a driving licence carrying Smita’s name and other details.

The suspects collected the new card that got activated around 8.30 pm on Januaray 15. They started making calls after 10.30 pm. Since the average monthly bills generated from this number would be around Rs 1,000,the company suspected foul play when between January 15 and 17,several international calls costing Rs 11,49,713 were made. Suspecting foul play,they verified the documents submitted for placing the request for the new SIM. and found out that fake documents had been produced for procuring the new card. It was found that while the copy of the driving licence carried Smita’s name,the photograph was of a different woman. The Idea Company then circulated the information to all its franchises.

On February 5,the suspects went to Idea Franchise Sudam Telecom in Hadapsar and placed a request for a new SIM card for the same number. The franchise owner Ganesh Phulare immediately informed Idea’s assistant manager. Following his instructions,Phulare asked the suspects to wait for an hour on the plea that his SIM card stock was over. Having bought time,the Idea staffers reached the spot,nabbed them and handed them over to the police.

The Idea officials,however,refused to comment on the case. Complainant Bhalchandran told The Indian Express that he was not authorised to speak on the events.

Sub-inspector Vinod Patil,the investigation officer,said the suspects came to Pune 20 days ago. “Both the suspects are not well educated. But most of the calls were made to multi-national companies in France. Investigation is on to know the mastermind behind the racket,” Patil said.

Meanwhile,the suspects were produced before the Khadki court on Saturday and remanded to police custody till February 13.