Crores worth of hawala transactions done using parallel telephone exchange, states CB report

KOCHI: The crime branch has given a report in the High Court that a hawala transaction worth crores was done under the cover of seven parallel telephone exchanges in Kozhikode and that calls were made from here to countries active in terrorism and human trafficking.

According to the report of Kozhikode District Crime Branch Assistant Commissioner TA Antony, the complete details of transactions, using servers and software of Chinese companies, could not be found.

The investigation team submitted its report against the anticipatory bail plea of Niyas Kuttassery, the fifth accused and resident of Kizhakkethala in Malappuram. The first four accused are P Juraid from Pandikashala, Kozhikode, PP Shabeer from Muriyadu, Krishna Prasad from Perambra's Pottammal and Abdul Ghafoor from Beypoor. Parallel telephone exchanges are a practice where foreigners bypass service providers and operate illegally over the Internet. The IP address of the server for this was obtained from Lynx IT Solutions, a company owned by Shabeer. The IP number was prepared by Intellectica Systems, Aurangabad.

From the report

• ED probe into money transactions of accused
• Niyas Kuttassery is the mastermind.
• There is a lookout notice and an arrest warrant against him who left the country on December 6, 2021.
• He made illegal transactions worth Rs 46.23 crores
• Niaz handed over Rs 10 crore to those associated with the parallel telephone exchange
• NIAS handled 582 call routers.
• Callrouters to countries like Syria, Yemen, Palestine and Pakistan were handed over