Police raid illegal telephone exchange in Pune

Our Bureau

Pune, Sept 20: The Pune police struck at yet another illegal telephone exchange in the city on Paud Road and Fergusson College road, which was was bypassing VSNL and providing international call facility.

Police claimed that routers, modems, dish antennas, computers and other installations, totally estimated to be worth over Rs 23 lakh were seized after raids carried out on Thursday. According to the police, both the exchanges were being run by Visual Securities Company since March this year. Police said the VSNL has incurred loss of Rs 13 crore due to these exchanges since March this year.

The owners of Visual Securities, Bhooshan S Kerur and his brother Kalyan have been arrested. They have been charged with cheating and conspiracy under sections 420 and 120 (B) of Indian Penal Code. Besides, the police have also slapped charges under section 25 of the Indian Telegraph Act.

Bhooshan was in USA for 12 years and had association with a Florida-based company, Ortoise Communication company. Police say the “illegal telephone exchanges” had been operating with help from Ortoise Communications.