Pre-Activated SIM Card Racket: Territorial Sales Manager Of Pvt Firm Arrested By CB

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Crime Branch which is investigating into the pre-activated SIM card racket, has arrested territorial sales manager of a private telecom firm Deepak Nayak for his links with the case.

It may be mentioned that that the cyber cops arrested Dushmant Sahu, Sai Prakash Das and Avinash Nayak and seized 19,641 SIM cards, Rs 14 lakh cash, 48 mobile phones, fingerprinting scanner, credit cards, bank passbooks, a laptop, 440 passport size photographs, 394 voter ID cards, five Aadhaar cards, 11 QR code boards and 108 customer application forms from their possession.

Dushmant was the mastermind while Sai Prakash and Avinash were jointly running a shop dealing with pre-activated SIM cards and other accessories of mobile phone.

Dushmanat had joined a group “Buyer Seller of OTP” through Facebook. He received pre-activated SIMs of BSNL, Jio, Vodafone and Airtel from Das and Nayak and shared those in the group. He charged Rs 400 per SIM and OTP.

The CB had issued notices to BSNL’s and Jio’s Dhenkanal heads and Vodafone’s Commercial Manager in Bhubaneswar for questioning in connection with the alleged distribution of pre-activated SIM cards.

During the investigation, two Paytm accounts linked to Sahu with Rs 30 lakh allegedly linked to the racket were also found. Total 5 persons have been arrested in connection with the case, so far.