22-year-old student runs up Rs 42-lakh phone bill

[Vyom]

22-year-old student runs up Rs 42-lakh phone bill

The Badlapur police have arrested Rishikesh Shukla, 22, who fraudulently procured a BSNL WLL (Wireless Local Loop) connection and made international calls worth Rs 42,52,480. Shukla is a native of Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and currently lives in Kalyan Kolsewadi. Sunil Manjhi, BSNL officer, Kalyan division, said, “While applying for a BSNL WLL connection, Shukla had submitted a copy of his PAN card, a copy of his house agreement and address proof, so we allotted him a connection on September 14.” Shukla paid the bill for the period September 14 to October 14 and then applied for an ISD call facility, for which he deposited Rs 3,000 with BSNL. From November 3 to November 23, he made several international calls, for which BSNL sent him a bill of Rs 42,52,480.


Manjhi said, “These bills kept returning to us with the tag ‘person not staying at the above address’. Our staff then visited the address. But, upon checking records, we found that the person had given us forged documents. So, the department decided to take the help of the Badlapur police who traced Shukla to Kalyan Kolsewadi and arrested him.”

PI Vijay Bagal, Badlapur police station, said, “We were surprised when the BSNL officer came to lodge such a complaint, because we wondered how they gave a connection in the first place without verifying documents. They should have done some verification while allotting him the international call facility. Now, the police have written to BSNL for details of the calls made by the accused.”

Police said Shukla has been pursuing a diploma in mechanical engineering for the past six years and is currently unemployed.

[Nipun]

Originally Posted by Vyom

22-year-old student runs up Rs 42-lakh phone bill

From comments:

Something is fishy here. Nov 3rd to Nov 23rd..That is 20 days = 480 hours = 28800 minutes. So if the bill was 4250000, and if we assume that the international line was on 24/7..continuously, the rate of calling an international ISDN call comes to (4250000/28800 = 147.50 Rs., which is impossible...

Rs. 147.5 per minute to make an international call... I DON"T BUY IT, FOLKS!!!!!!

I think, this Shukla guy is a victim of some high level scam by BSNL...

[Vyom]

From Comments...

FYI, calls to Ireland special numbers is Rs. 550 per minute...

[Nipun]

Originally Posted by Vyom

From Comments...

oh lol didn't see that!

ico moved thread?

[Vyom]

^^ Yes. People over use Off topic thread. News like this wan't meant for offtopic. It was a Random news!

Anyway, edited the first post to reflect the move.

[freshseasons]

Isn't BSNL suppose to use something like minimum credit limit. Something is wrong that they waited for the phone bills to mount to 42 Lakhs...

[Zangetsu]

Rs 42,52,480. is huge bill amount...
but BSNL also has to blame here to improper verification

[d6bmg]

Its impossible. BSNL must have some upper limit and which must be much less than 42L.

[vaithy]

I have come to similiar case in a 3 G related, but this is surprising even to me, in my case the bills run in to 5 lakhs in a 3 month period when the BSNL people visited the place the company bolted from the scene.. but doing roaring business in BANGALURU, interviewing several would be excutives for their Business there.. in such case FIR is the only recourse, but BSNL willfully delayed,(because usually the question will come in to which officer recommend this connection,(without verifying bonafide addresses) It is mandatory after giving connection one of the BSNL verification officer should visit the premises, and give the necessary certificate..
from the description of the crime, it may not be international calls, but computer related,( I have a case with a computer company obtained a Land line but tied with a call centre router and redirected all calls to another private ISP phone,, as the phone tied with router, the traffic is calculated in calls charges term.. However this stopped, when local JTO detected it, than the company paid the all the dues,(after detaching the phone from router) so it kept quit...In changing IT land scape there are so many tricks available to use(misuse) the phone system...only BSNL people are technologically inferior to deal such occasion..
My guess is the particular WLL was used in computer system..(without actually getting details I cann't explain ).. perhaps the youth in question is inventing something new business model with a obsolete phone system.. Perhaps BSNL instead of charging him should employ him..

[vipul2]

ohh bsnl is also responsible for all these they must have some verification for limit of amount of call.

[ineedcoupon]

LMAO BSNL cant catch all 3G scammers but they are billing some innocent guy Srsly lol

[DeSmOnD dAvId]

Probably trying to recover all their loss from this one guy.

[thetechfreak]

Epic
Just left me speechless

[KDroid]

Originally Posted by DeSmOnD dAvId

Probably trying to recover all their loss from this one guy.

Moreover, that guy is unemployed!

[DeSmOnD dAvId]

What sadness!

Now it doesn't matter whether they recover their loss or not. They blame all their loss on this guy, who cannot pay up, so will probably be jailed and everyone forgets about the loss.

[buddyram]

Who woked up BSNL when it reached 42 lacs ...... somebody spoilt their sleep!!!

[rajivnedungadi]

may be they have sent Mr. Mukesh Ambani's electricity bill to this guy thinking that it was his phone bill