Four Chhota Rajan aides arrested from Odisha; illegal telephone exchange busted

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Jul 8, 2017 at 5:06 PM Updated On : Jul 9, 2017 at 6:33 PM

Berhampur: Crime Branch of Mumbai police today arrested four persons having links with underworld don Chhota Rajan gang from Odisha’s Berhampur for their alleged complicity in extortion bid from a Mumbai-based realtor.

The sleuths raided several locations in Berhampur and Chhatrapur leading to arrest of the four accused including the mastermind T Laxminarayan Sharoff.

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“We have arrested four persons including the kingpin. They were routing international calls through devices called SIM box to phones in India. Hong Kong-based Chhota Rajan’s close associate Suresh Pujari had made extortion call to a Mumbai realtor through Berhampur with the help of these people. When Mumbai Crime Branch probed into the matter, they traced the calls to Berhampur,” Berhampur Additional SP Trinath Patel said.

The China-made devices capable of accommodating 16-17 SIM cards were being used to run illegal telephone exchange violating the TRAI guidelines. It comes under Cyber Crime and one of the newest kinds in Odisha. We are investigating further as it has international ramifications. We might visit abroad in connection with the investigations, he added.

The caller had demanded Rs 2 crore as extortion money from the complainant, police informed.

Based on a complaint filed by the realtor, Crime Branch officials probed into the matter and zeroed in on Odisha. The cops raided various places and arrested three accused from Berhampur and one from Chhatrapur.

While these four accused – T Laxminarayan Sharoff, Pradeep Choudhury, Suresh Kumar Satpathy, and Santosh Kumar Sahu – have been arrested, five SIM boxes have also been seized.

They have been arrested under section 420, 467, 468, 471, 34 of IPC r/w Section 66 (B), 66 (C) of IT Act-2000.

Worth mentioning, a SIM box transfers international calls to a phone, concealing original caller’s identity as the number appears as a local number.

Notably, one more member of the gang was arrested a fortnight ago from Rambha in this connection.

The parallel telephone exchange or SIM box fraud is mostly used by gangsters, fraudsters and terrorists, police further said.