Crime News : Police of many states have revealed a new method of demanding ransom. Gangsters sitting abroad are escaping the clutches of agencies through 'dabba calling'.
Crime News: Criminals sitting abroad are threatening for extortion in a new way. Their local henchman calls the victim through the internet. Then he calls his boss from another phone who is sitting in another country. Both the phones are placed side by side with their speakers on. Then, the gangster sitting abroad demands extortion from the victim in his own way by calling him 'protection money', 'week' or any other codeword. This method of fooling the intelligence agencies is called 'Dabba Calling'. Probably because in this the threat is given through another phone (Dabba).
For the past few months, police in states like Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have been trying to find a solution to this 'dabba calling'. According to a report in The Indian Express, the 'dabba calling' method is widely used by gangsters living abroad. These include notorious names like Goldy Brar (the alleged mastermind behind the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala), Rohit Godara and Anmol Bishnoi.
Threats through 'Dabba Calling', police unable to trace
Recently, a meeting was held at the Delhi Police Headquarters. During that meeting, police from several states discussed the method of 'Dabba Calling'. Officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) also attended this meeting. According to the report, in most cases, the henchmen are in one place and the leader of the gang is in another place. Sometimes they are present in different countries and make calls through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) i.e. Internet.
The newspaper quoted a source as saying that mostly 'builders, contractors, high-profile businessmen, bookies, cable operators, high-end car dealers, club/hotel owners, illegal call centre owners, forex and hawala operators and local politicians' are targeted.
How does 'dabba calling' happen?
Such calls are mostly made via a Virtual Private Network (VPN). It is an encrypted connection between a device and a remote server that hides a person's online identity. This makes it difficult for investigators to trace the source of the call. When call forensics are done, the clues end up at one of the criminal's associates, while the mastermind is sitting miles away.
Extortion gangs use apps that provide end-to-end encryption. In this, all the data is converted into a code to keep it safe. Quoting the police, the report said that in many cases the concerned app cited jurisdiction because the gangsters are in foreign locations, and refused to give details. Even if the details are found, the IP address turns out to be from abroad due to VPN.
Months pass in completing the legal process and by then the gangster has fled somewhere else. If an Indian IP is found, it is often found out that the SIM card or dongle was purchased on fake documents.