[Watch] Pre-Activated SIM Card Racket: Odisha Crime Branch Issues Notices To BSNL, Jio, Vodafone

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Crime Branch (CB) has taken the three persons arrested for their alleged involvement in a pre-activated SIM card racket on remand for five days.

The Crime Branch also 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.

After the Crime Branch busted the racket, the SIM activation process of the three telecom providers is under the scanner.

Crime Branch ADG Sanjeev Panda said that during investigations they found two Paytm accounts linked to Sahu with Rs 30 lakh allegedly linked to the racket.

The accused had used the photograph of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to create a WhatsApp account using a BSNL mobile number and were cheating people by asking them money.

Delhi Police had initially flagged the number and alerted the Odisha Crime Branch, which found the number being used in three different mobile phones in Talabarkot village in Dhenkanal district. SIM cards of other service providers were also being used similarly.

After an extensive investigation, the cybercops 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.

While Dushmant was the mastermind, Sai Prakash and Avinash were jointly running a shop dealing with pre-activated SIM cards and other accessories of cellphones. 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 these in the group. He charged Rs 400 per SIM and OTP, the Crime Branch said.