BHOPAL: The state cyber cell of Madhya Pradesh Police has busted a suspected racket involved in illegally obtaining call detail data (CDR) from telecom service providers and selling it to customers for money.
Three men, including an assistant sub-inspector posted with the Indore city police and two operators of private detective agencies in Indore and Bhopal, have been arrested so far.
The accused are being interrogated by cyber cell officials to identify other members of the suspected network.
According to police sources, investigators have tracked down more people linked to the racket, most of whom run private detective agencies in Bhopal, Indore and other cities in the state.
These agencies were allegedly spying on individuals, including influential people, on behalf of high-paying clients.
As part of tracking their targets, the agencies allegedly obtained the CDR with the help of the arrested ASI, who was posted at an important specialized unit of the Indore Police Station.
Investigators are now trying to identify other members of the network, including people working with telecom service providers, who may have illegally supplied CDRs to private detective agencies through the arrested ASI.
Importantly, CDRs can only be obtained by the police through designated technical IDs and nodal officers authorized to seek data from telecom companies as part of criminal investigations.
“No private person, including those who claim to be running private detective agencies, can obtain CDRs through TSPs,” a senior police officer associated with the investigation said on Wednesday.
The case assumes significance as investigators suspect that authorized police technical IDs may have been misused to access CDRs for private clients in exchange for large sums of money.
