A shop owner in Rajarhat who runs an outlet from where SIM cards are being issued, was arrested last week for allegedly selling pre-activated SIM cards without valid documents.
Officers of Rajarhat police station, who made the arrest on Thursday, said the shop was tracked after the involvement of multiple SIM cards issued from there emerged in connection with several cyber frauds.
“We received information that multiple SIM cards that had been used in cyber frauds were issued from this Rajarhat shop. We zeroed in on the shop and found that it was being run by one Raj Saha. Although the owner of the shop was his father Uday Saha, the son used to look after the operations,” said an officer of Bidhannagar police.
The police said Raj had allegedly violated the rules issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that has made it mandatory to submit valid identity documents to obtain a SIM card.
“He issued SIM cards to different persons after forging different identity proofs, documents and supplying those to a big racket, who are dealing with nationwide cyber crime,” said an officer.
Cyber frauds — that include impersonation as bank officials or as police officers causing digital arrest of victims — need SIM cards to carry out the fraud. “As SIM cards can be tracked easily, hence fraudsters try to obtain SIM cards that are issued against fake documents. People who are facilitating these SIM cards are equally culpable for the crime,” he added.
The police said they were in the process of identifying how many SIM cards have been issued from that outlet without valid documents.