Members of an NGO in Delhi light candles for those who lost their lives in the Mumbai terror attacks on Wednesday. Picture by Prem Singh

Dec. 3: Mumbai police believe that at least three SIM cards used by the terrorists had been procured from Bengal. However, this does not seem to have rattled the security concerns of the state much and SIM cards continue to be sold in north Bengal without proper verification of the buyers’ identity.

A senior police officer in Siliguri said there was no mechanism in place between the police, intelligence agencies and mobile phone service providers to go through the details of subscribers at regular intervals.

“It is only after a crime has been committed that we approach service providers for details. The procurement of SIM cards still remains an easy task as buying a mouth-freshener from a pan shop,” the officer said.

S.K. Samanta, the general manager of the Siliguri telecom division of the BSNL, said in order to get a SIM card, all a person needed to do was to fill up a form and submit some documents as identity proof. “There is no further cross-verification,” he said.

Fierce competition among the service providers has made it possible to buy SIM cards from para shops even in areas close to the Bangladesh border.

“In cases where we know the persons, we give the SIM card first and take the documents later. They are then passed on to the distributors,” said Chandan, a dealer in Malda town.

Jayanta Kundu, a distributor, claimed that he forwarded all documents to the service provider. However, when contacted a senior official of a cellphone company said only papers submitted for post-paid connections were cross-checked, and that too, for billing purposes.

“Some SIM cards are activated in 10 minutes and the rest within an hour. We either ask for copies of voter ID cards, driving licences or identity cards issued by the government, and then give the SIM cards,” said Gouranga Pal of Cooch Behar town.

Liton Rehman, who sells SIM cards in Sitalkuchi near the Bangladesh border in Cooch Behar, said he sent the photocopies to his distributor in Mathabhanga. “I have never seen any body coming for verification,” he added.

Rehman said there were hundreds of SIM cards, which were not used by buyers who had originally procured it. “People, especially the youth, switch to new schemes and buy new SIM cards and sell their old ones. No one knows how many times these cards have changed hands,” he said.

The inspector-general of police (north Bengal), K.L. Tamta, said pre-paid SIMs should only be handed over after proper verification.

“We will have to review the situation and see what is actually happening at the ground level,” Tamta said.