Busted ISI spy racket in MP ran illegal phone exchanges for undercover work

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Police's anti-terrorist squad (ATS) has made some startling discovery after the arrests of 11 people in connection with the Pakistani espionage racket case from three major cities in the state.

The interrogation of the accused has revealed that the ISI-backed racket ran illegal telephone exchanges in cities like Guwalior, Bhopal and Jabalpur for collecting important defence secrets.

Their modus-operandi is to make calls to the Army by posing as Indian officials in order to collect intelligence like security movements and operations.

They used the Voice Over Internet Protocol Technique (VOIPT) to transmit key information to the enemy country. The internet calls are illegally changed into mobile and landline numbers, the investigators said.

A huge amount of cash was regularly deposited into their accounts through clandestine channels and the money is then used for undercover work.

Indian officials have also uncovered a nexus between some employees of telecom companies and the spying racket, whose reach, they believe, is not limited to Madhya Pradesh but beyond it.

The accused, who posed as call centre executives to hide identity, were held on charges of spying and under the Indian Telegraph Act.