Members of Rab 2 arrested the owner of the office Mainul Islam Khan and two of its staff, Abdul Kuddus and Shohag, during an eight-hour long raid that ended at 10:00pm that night.

The seized equipment includes computers, 228 SIM (subscriber identity module) cards of different cellular phone service operators, 42 telluler devices and many coils of internet cables. Rab officials said the estimated price of the seized equipment could be over Tk 10 lakh.

The criminals had been using the seized equipment to generate or terminate overseas calls by first turning voice calls to data, routing it over the internet and then turning the data into voice again. This method, also known as Internet Telephony, bypasses BTTB (Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board) -- the sole carrier for overseas calls in Bangladesh.

Assistant Police Super of Rab, Kazi Ashraful Azim, who led the raid, said the gang had been running the illegal business for the last three years, although the government is yet to provide any licence to run VoIP business in Bangladesh.

"The gang deprived the government of around Tk 14 to 15 crore in taxes," he estimated.

He said the owner of the illegal business Mainul lives in Kuwait and his telephony service connected many countries all over the world. "We're lucky to have arrested him as he hardly visits Bangladesh."

Mainul, schooled in madrasa, told reporters that he learnt about the business from a Pakistani citizen in Kuwait. He admitted that he was running the business despite knowing that such business is illegal in the country.