The Cybercrime Unit of the Central Criminal Investigation Division (CCID) pulled off a major coup on Wednesday by arresting Lim Sam Adelisse aged 30 for making 55,000 illegal outgoing international calls done for 157,962 minutes, totalling Rs 500,000 at the prejudice of Mauritius Telecom (MT).
He had bypassed the MT International Routing System and made those calls using 30 SIM cards which he had purchased through Gatema Limited, Roche Bois on March 30. The suspect has confessed to the offence to the CCID.
Following a complaint from an MT subscriber, a joint operation was mounted by the ICT Authority and the police IT Unit comprising inspector Djapermal, sergeant Robin Bhundoo, police constable Thakoor and constables Behari and Kawol.
They raided the premises of Gatema Ltd, situated at Roche Bois and IT equipment worth Rs 1 million was seized.
Gatema Limited was operating an illegal network . Police also quizzed the suspect’s wife, Daniella Rakotonirina aged 32. She was allowed to go after investigation.
The police investigation was carried out by sergeant Bhundoo of the Cybercrime Unit, under the supervision of assistant commissioner of police, Pregarsen Vuddamalay.
Adelisse will be presented at the Port Louis district court on Thursday under a charge of operating illegal international call bypass in breach of section 46 L of ICT Act 2001.
The accused risks a penalty to a fine not exceeding Rs 1 million and five years imprisonment.
This is the second major case of the CCID following the successful crack down of cellular phone fraud worth Rs 3 million committed by Bangladeshi expatriates in April.