KATHMANDU: Nepal Police's Central Investigation Bureau has arrested a teenager on charge of illegally operating a call bypass centre in Birtamod-5 of Jhapa district.

The suspect has been identified as 17-year-old Sumit Kumar Singh of Shani Arjun Municipality-1.

In a statement, the CIB said Singh was arrested under the Operation Voice Fox on March 23.

Several equipment, including a 64-port GOIP gateway device, a 16-port GOIP gateway device, and two 8-port GOIP gateway devices and an internet modem router, as well as seven NTC SIM cards and 18 NCell SIM cards were seized from a rented room in Purano Bhadrapur where Singh had been operating the centre to bypass international calls.

Singh was handed over to the Birtamod Area Police Office for further action.

Anyone found guilty of illegal call bypassing is penalised with a jail term of up to five years under the Telecommunications Act, 1997.