Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organisation today claimed to have unearthed a multicrore communication racket by busting clandestine call centres running with the help of some BSNL officers in Kargil in the frontier Ladakh region.
A team of SVO headed by Inspector General of Police vigilance S K Mishra carried out searches early this morning at five call centres in Kargil.
The multicrore communication racket involving a private party headed by one Ajaz Ahmad Bhat and some BSNL officers led by junior telecom officer Shameem Ahmad Bhat came to light during the searches, a spokesman of the SVO said.
He said there was a criminal conspiracy between BSNL officers posted in Kargil and the private party resulting in loss of crores of rupees to public sector BSNL.
The team collectled incriminating material connected with these clandestine communication centres which were using BSNL facilities for providing connectivity to subscribers in other countries at cheaper rates, the spokesman said.
He said searches were also carried out at the residences of Ajaz Ahmad Bhat in Srinagar and Kargil and residence of the JTO in Kargil. The spokesman said Bhat has set up a network of call centres with conferencing facility in Kargil for the last two years.
Through these call centres, clients in different countries, including Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar and Nepal, were able to communicate by making international calls at concessional rates. He said the BSNL officials had dishonestly and fraudulently provided local call telephone connections coupled with code facility for clandestine ISD calls to the call centers belonging to Bhat.