Dabba Calling: Why police are grappling with a new extortion technique

According to police sources, the method was flagged by the police in these states at a recent meeting at the Delhi Police headquarters. Officials representing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) also attended the meeting.

In most of these cases, the henchman and the gang leader are allegedly in two different locations, even different countries, and make Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) — or simply Internet — calls.

Most of those targeted are “builders, contractors, high-profile businessmen, bookies, cable operators, high-end car dealers, club/hotel owners, illegal call centre owners, foreign exchange and hawala operators, and some local politicians,” one source said.

The calls are typically made using a virtual private network, or VPN — an encrypted connection over the Internet between a device and a remote server that’s aimed at masking one’s online identity.

According to investigators, this “simple method” makes it challenging to trace the source of the call.

“So, when the call forensics are done, the trail ends with the location of the aide, who’s miles away from the main extortionist,” one officer told The Indian Express.

One such example, according to this officer, is a call that 21-year-old gangster Himanshu Bhau, a fugitive whose last known location is believed to be Portugal, made to a known cable operator in India last year.

“First, Bhau’s aide (Gangster B) made a VOIP call from a different location to the cable operator in Outer Delhi’s Ranhola and another call from a different phone set to Bhau. He then put both on speaker and Bhau threatened to kill the victim if he didn’t pay. When the demands were not met, Bhau sent his shooters to fire at the victim’s office, killing his son Hitesh,” the officer said.

The discovery was made on the back of an FIR registered at Delhi’s Ranhola Police Station on February 27 last year. On that day, the Delhi Police had arrested two sharpshooters from Jhajjar, Haryana, following an alleged encounter.

According to the officer quoted earlier, these gangs are using apps that offer end-to-end encryption — a security method that keeps data private by converting it into a code — “for secure communication”.

“There are several instances when some of these apps cited jurisdictional issues because the gangsters are in foreign locations, and refused to share details,” the officer said.

According to the sources in the Delhi Police, several service providers also have refused to share IP addresses citing such jurisdictional issues. And in cases where such details are provided, the IP is found to be a foreign country because of VPNs.

“This legal process takes several months and by the time it’s done, the gangster has moved to a different place,” the officer quoted earlier said. “If the IP is in India, then details are procured about the user. In most cases, it turns out that the SIM card and dongle used are found procured through fake documents”.

In cases where such calls don’t go through and the intended victim doesn’t answer the phone, voice messages are sent, also using VPNs.

According to sources, several police officers claimed at the six-hour long meeting that it was difficult to trace the money trail of these gangsters.

The Haryana Police also said at the meeting that it had issued 26 Look Out Circulars against different criminals — including three blue notices and eight red notices — against gangsters such as Brar, Godara, and Anmol Bishnoi.

While an Interpol blue notice is an international alert used to help locate, identify, or obtain information about a person of interest in a criminal investigation, a red notice is a request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person.

Besides these, they have also issued four notices for passport revocation. “They also said at the meeting that they have registered around 13 cases against the gangsters and their associates for making fake passports,” the officer said.