KARACHI, April 16: The police, with the help of the staff of PTCL, raided an apartment in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, arrested a man for allegedly running an illegal mini-telephone exchange.

A senior police official said the PTCL staff informed the police that a subscriber, Amir Anees, had submitted the copies of two separate demand notes after depositing their prescribed fee in a bank on March 2, this year. The two telephones (8014636 and 8014637) were installed a couple of days ago.

However, the fee was not submitted in the bank and this was only revealed after the installation of the said telephones. The police investigated the case and picked up Amir Anees for interrogation, where he disclosed that he had affixed the fake bank stamp impression on the demand notes.

The SHO, Yasin Kalwar, along with a police party and DE of PTCL (Gulistan-i-Johar), Waqar Asif, and other PTCL staff raided apartment no C-403, Shumayal Haven, Block-16, Gulistan-i-Johar, where the two telephones were installed, and recovered the fake stamps. The police and PTCL staff also found a mini-telephone exchange there.

During interrogation, Amir Anees told the police and PTCL officials that he ran a telephone exchange and several PCOs were his subscribers. He charged far less than the prescribed PTCL charges for trunk calls. The police said Amir, a former ad-hoc employee of the PTCL, had been running the illegal exchange for the past three years in Buffer Zone and had moved to Gulistan-i-Johar recently.

The police have registered a case against Amir Anees. The police were investigating as to how many PCOs were affiliated with the suspect’s illegal business and those involved would also be picked up.