BENGALURU: Karnataka Police, and Military Intelligence (Southern Command), have together busted an illegal network, comprising six telephone exchanges, that were converting international calls to local calls, and also ferreting out information from Indian army exchanges, and personnel.
Two persons, hailing from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, have been arrested in the city on June 7, a statement issued by the police said. They have been identified as Ibrahim Pulatti of Malappuram, Kerala, and V. Gautam of Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, residing in BTM Layout of the city.
The duo had established a network of six illegal telephone exchanges in BTM Layout. Using 30 electronic devices fitted with 32 sim cards each for their operations, the illegal telephone exchanges converted international calls into local calls.
Indian Army officials went into alert mode when their Siliguri helpline began recieving several suspicious calls seeking information on troop movements in April. The army located the calls to Bengaluru, and contacted the city police.
A joint raid conducted by the Anti-Terrorist Cell (ATC) on June 7, led to the arrest of the two persons, while a Hawala operator has been arrested from Bhatkal in coastal Karnataka.
Bengaluru city police commissioner, Kamal Pant said that the arrested persons are being charged with defrauding the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the exchequer, by illegally creating a telephone exchange.
Meanwhile, an Army Intelligence and law enforcement press note, said that the arrested men are also accused of "disrupting the country's security".
"These metrics are very important factors as we move towards implementing the changes on the border that we hope to have in place in early July, " said Hajdu.
"If we can keep our communities safe and free of Covid, then we will not have to return to measures that are so difficult for everyone.
"We'll be watching carefully here in Canada and around the world as cases change and as vaccination rates rise, " the Minister added.
All indicators of Covid-19 disease activity and severity continue to decline in Canada.
The country's seven-day averages for case counts have fallen below 1, 800 cases reported daily for the first time since the fall of 2020, said Theresa Tam, chief public health officer, in a statement on Wednesday.
Tam said the latest seven-day average for the number of people with Covid-19 being treated in hospitals each day has dropped more than 55 per cent since the peak to under 2, 000 daily.
Of these, on average, less than 850 were being treated in intensive care units, which is 40 per cent fewer than the peak number, and average daily deaths are also down to almost 40 per cent to 32 deaths being reported daily, she added.
Canada has so far reported a cumulative total of 1, 396, 030 Covid-19 cases, with 25, 832 fatalities.