CBI busts ISD call racket in New Delhi

A BSNL official, a Saudi Arabia-based NRI and three others were arrested by CBI on Monday for running an ISD call racket, causing BSNL a loss of crores.

The arrested include Ashok Chaudhary, sub-divisional engineer, BSNL, Roorkee and NRI  Sayeed Zaidi, the  alleged kingpin of the racket.

CBI said the accused tampered with computers at the Roorkee BSNL exchange to allot premium international call lines to people, who made  calls to Congo, Sierra Leone and Somalia and operated adult chat lines.

“Premium rate phone numbers are international numbers for calls during which certain services are provided at prices higher than normal. Adult chat lines are an example of premium rate numbers,” a CBI spokesperson said.

“Unlike a normal call, part of the call charge is paid to the service provider by the phone company at the receiver’s end. As such, subscribers were getting huge money,” he added.