An illegal telephone exchange operating from Noida and causing revenue loss to the central government was busted and two persons allegedly involved in it were arrested, police said on Tuesday.

The exchange, which converted foreign calls to domestic ones, was set up in Sector 63, under Central Noida police limits, and is estimated to have caused Rs 30 crore loss in revenue so far, they said.

Besides the revenue loss to the government, the illegal telephone exchange also posed a threat to national security, police said.

“The illegal telephone exchange was located in Sector 63 and was busted following a raid Monday night by local police and officials of Telecom Department. The exchange was used to route international calls to local calls illegally.” Additional DCP (Central Noida) Saad Miyan Khan said.

“Two people identified as Sweet Sharma and Pankaj Safi have been arrested from the spot while electronic items related to a telephone exchange set were also seized from there.” Khan said.

An FIR has been lodged in the case under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy) while charges under the Indian Telecom Act have also been invoked, the officer said.

According to officials, on Monday a representative of Reliance Jio Infocomm had alerted the local police about the issue which led to the action.

During intiial probe, the arrestees admitted to setting up the illegal phone exchange in May this year and said the foreign calls routed by them went to Indian customers over Jio network, the officials added.

“Routing international calls to domestic numbers like this can also cause a threat to the country’s security The Department of Telecom is also probing how gateways or connections get compromised for such illegal activities.” the officer said.