Cyber Crime
Caution! Phone Call Records on Sale; Police Officer Arrested
BENGALURU: The Bengaluru police have apprehended a police constable and an alleged mastermind involved in the illegal sale of call detail records (CDRs). The arrested individuals are Munirathna, a constable with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) stationed in Kolar district, and Nageshwar Reddy, a resident of Andhra Pradesh.
In May, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) had previously arrested seven individuals accused of unlawfully selling CDRs. These records were reportedly sought by clients, including criminals looking to track the movements of rivals, separated spouses, and estranged partners. Chandragupta, the Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime), stated that these arrests were a continuation of investigations into three cases filed in May. He noted that while the operations were based in Bengaluru, clients were located in various other states. The police reviewed contact numbers and discovered that members of the agencies were befriending law enforcement personnel to obtain CDRs.
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According to a police officer, raids revealed that certain detective agencies were illegally gathering CDRs. “Legally, CDRs can only be acquired by law enforcement agencies when there is an ongoing case, along with a formal request outlining the reason for the CDR request. However, these agencies were managing to obtain CDRs unlawfully for their clients,” the officer explained.
Previously, the police had arrested Purushottam (43) from Kengeri, Thippeswamy G.K. (48) from Marathahalli, Mahantagowda Patil (46) from Anjananagar, Revanth (25) from Vijayanagar, Gurupadaswamy (38) from Dasanapura, Rajashekar S. (32) from Vijinapura, and Prasanna Dattatreya Garuda (36) from Pune. These individuals were associated with Rajadhani Corporate Service in Govindaraja Nagar. Additionally, Sathish Kumar J. (39) from Kothanur Dinne, linked to Mahanagari Detective and Security Solution Pvt Ltd in Prashanthanagar, along with Srinivas V. (46) and Bharath K.B. (28) from J.C. Nagar, who were connected to Elegant Detective in Basaveshwara Nagar, were also arrested.