The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Kozhikode parallel telephone exchange case has nabbed P.P. Shabeer, the prime suspect who had been at large for over a year.
The Chalappuram native who was on his way to a resort at Pozhuthana in Wayanad was picked up with the support of a local police squad on Friday. Though he tried to mislead the squad with a fake name, it was in vain.
700 SIM cards
According to District Crime Branch (CB) sources, Shabeer went into hiding along with three of his close aides after parallel telephone exchanges in Kozhikode were exposed by a police team on July 2. The exchanges were found functioning from eight rented facilities from where the police had seized over 700 SIM cards as well as call routers imported from China.
Subsequent to the flash raids in those locations, the police had arrested P. Jurise, 26, who allegedly helped the four-member gang manage the centres. Based on his statement, the SIT formed by CB zeroed in on the kingpins of the network. The others who went into hiding along with Shabeer were M.G. Krishnaprasad, Abdul Gafoor, and K. Niyas.
Considering the grave nature of the case, reportedly having links with extremist modules, the SIT had initiated measures to attach the properties of the four persons. Their details had been handed over to the Registrations Department to compensate for the huge loss they had caused to the government. Officers from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had also sought the case details to probe into the suspected terror links.
One of the major findings by CB in the investigation was the suspected misuse of the network operated by the four in facilitating the secret communication between Pakistan-based agencies and their supportive counterparts in different parts of India. It was also found that smugglers and members of extremist groups from other countries had been exploiting the network.
CB sources said the case would be probed further by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as well in view of the suspicious financial deals by the suspects. Preliminary investigation reports said there were doubtful transactions worth ₹46 crore between the suspects and their agents.
“One of the latest findings was the use of a special software to control the parallel communication network. A few IT firms in Kozhikode and Malappuram had been exposed for designing the special-purpose software,” said a senior police officer associated with the probe. He added that digital evidence had also been recovered from two IT firms for further forensic examination.
