Sambalpur: Cyber Police have busted a fake SIM card racket here and arrested three persons for allegedly manufacturing and selling counterfeit mobile connections.
Police said possible links between the racket and the cybercrime hub of Jamtara in Jharkhand are also under investigation.
The accused were identified as Suraj Bag (24) of Panchput, Malati Oram alias Mala (29) of Sinapali, and Papu alias Sheikh Parwez (32) of Motijharan, Sambalpur.
The racket was uncovered during an investigation by Cyber Police Station personnel earlier this week.
Revealing the modus operandi, sources said the accused were misusing customers’ identity documents to generate multiple SIM cards against a single number. While handing over one SIM to the customer, they retained the extra cards and sold them to others.
Investigations revealed that several of these SIMs were later used in cybercrime activities at Jamtara in Jharkhand. Evidence also suggests that proceeds from the sale of these SIMs were shared among the group.
Police seized four mobile phones, four active SIMs, 120 sealed blank Airtel SIM cards, three bank passbooks, chequebooks, Aadhaar cards, a PhonePe QR code scanner, four affidavits, a tenancy agreement, 10 Airtel pamphlets, and four Airtel 5G Plus signboards from the accused.
Authorities are continuing their probe to identify other members of the network, determine the number of SIMs produced and supplied, and assess the scale of financial transactions.