By Anupam Mishra: The West Bengal Special Task Force busted an illegal telephone exchange system this week being run by six people, including three Bangladeshi nationals.

According to police, the accused operated a specially designed system called ‘SIMBOX’ to bypass the government-regulated telephone exchange and evade payment of taxes.

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The SIMBOX racket was being used to run a parallel illegal telecom exchange by making a false representation of a tele-gateway operator. It received international calls and terminated with local GSM phones, bypassing the legal gateway system for their wrongful gain and causing huge losses to the Government of India by way of evading payment of tax.

The accused also procured a massive number of fake Indian SIM cards through fraud.

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The six people were arrested from different parts of North 24 Parganas district, such as Basirhat, Baduria, Barasat, Dumdum, and Bidhannagar. Among those arrested were three Bangladeshi nationals who entered India illegally. A total of six SIMBOX setups have been seized till now.

A case has been registered against the accused under relevant sections of the IPC, Foreigners Act, Indian Telegraph Act, and Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act at Baduria police station. Investigation is underway.