Berhampur: The Mumbai Crime Branch (CB) today arrested four persons from Ganjam district over suspected underworld links and extortion in the name of gangster Chhota Rajan and seized five China-made SIM boxes.
According to police, four persons were arrested including mastermind identified as T Laxminarayan Sharoff who was operating the SIM boxes used to divert international calls from the Silk city along with his associates. Sharoff along with his associates Pradeep Choudhury, Suresh Kumar Satpathy, and Santosh Kumar Sahu was operating the illegal telephone exchange racket under the name of a business house, S. World.
"A dreaded gangster of Hong Kong, Suresh Pujari, who is a close associate of Chhota Rajan had demanded Rs 2 crore as ransom from a Mumbai-based real estate businessman over phone. After tracing the call, CB found the calls were made from Berhampur. Subsequently, they contacted the police here who raided different places and arrested three persons from Berhampur and one from Chhatrapur. Five China made SIM boxes were seized from the accused," said Berhampur additional SP Trinath Patel.
Further elaborating on the matter, the official said the calls were made through the SIM boxes which automatically divert the international calls to local calls and accommodate 16-17 SIM cards. "Pujari used to call to the SIM box which was diverting the calls to Mumbai as local calls. It's difficult to trace such call as it camouflages the caller identity. It comes under cyber crime and it is a new kind of crime in Odisha with international ramifications. Our investigation is on and we may have to go abroad for further investigation into the case," he said.
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It is worth mentioning that the police had arrested one more member of the gang a fortnight ago from Rambha in this connection.
"Use of such SIM boxes for international calls even violates Trai guidelines and government bears loss as international calls get converted to local calls. The CB Mumbai is in constant touch with us. We would decide on our future course of action after discussion with our senior officers," he added.