Dhaka Phone top brass sent to jail
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
FE Report
A court sent five top officials of Dhaka Phone, the country's fifth largest land phone operator, to jail Monday following their overnight arrest in an illegal VoIP case.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrates' Court sent Dhaka Phone Chairman ATM Hayatuzzaman and Managing Director KM Shahidullah, General Manager (technical) Harun Al Atahar, Senior Manager (technical) Ekramul Haque and Senior Billing Manager Haripada Poddar Ajit to jail after refusing them bail.
Officials said a case had been filed on December 24 last year with Badda Police Station against the five Dhaka Phone officials for illegal exchange of foreign calls.
Illegal VoIP equipment worth about Tk 10 million was also seized from the company's head office at Rupayan Tower in Mohakhali at that time.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) alleges that although the company officials were warned at that time, they have again started operating illegal VoIP services.
On Sunday, a joint team of BTRC and RAB raided the head office of the country's fifth largest public switched telephone network (PSTN) company in Banani.
During the six-hour drive, the team picked up Hayatuzzaman and Shahidullah along with three other company officials.
Dhaka Phone has been running illegal voice over internet protocol (VoIP) business in the capital for long. As a result, the government was deprived of a large amount in revenue, said a BTRC statement.
BTRC officials and RAB personnel collected call and customer related information from the switch room and IN server of Dhaka Phone from the Rupayan Tower in Mohakhali and unearthed gross irregularities.
During the investigation the team found that the call traffic of Dhaka Phone abnormally exceeded the number of subscribers, the statement said.
The number of subscribers of Dhaka Phone now stands at 75,465 of the country's 1.692 million clients of 13 PSTN operators.
A court sent five top officials of Dhaka Phone, the country's fifth largest land phone operator, to jail Monday following their overnight arrest in an illegal VoIP case.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrates' Court sent Dhaka Phone Chairman ATM Hayatuzzaman and Managing Director KM Shahidullah, General Manager (technical) Harun Al Atahar, Senior Manager (technical) Ekramul Haque and Senior Billing Manager Haripada Poddar Ajit to jail after refusing them bail.
Officials said a case had been filed on December 24 last year with Badda Police Station against the five Dhaka Phone officials for illegal exchange of foreign calls.
Illegal VoIP equipment worth about Tk 10 million was also seized from the company's head office at Rupayan Tower in Mohakhali at that time.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) alleges that although the company officials were warned at that time, they have again started operating illegal VoIP services.
On Sunday, a joint team of BTRC and RAB raided the head office of the country's fifth largest public switched telephone network (PSTN) company in Banani.
During the six-hour drive, the team picked up Hayatuzzaman and Shahidullah along with three other company officials.
Dhaka Phone has been running illegal voice over internet protocol (VoIP) business in the capital for long. As a result, the government was deprived of a large amount in revenue, said a BTRC statement.
BTRC officials and RAB personnel collected call and customer related information from the switch room and IN server of Dhaka Phone from the Rupayan Tower in Mohakhali and unearthed gross irregularities.
During the investigation the team found that the call traffic of Dhaka Phone abnormally exceeded the number of subscribers, the statement said.
The number of subscribers of Dhaka Phone now stands at 75,465 of the country's 1.692 million clients of 13 PSTN operators.