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3 held for selling SIM cards activated on forged papers to cyber criminals
These SIM cards were used by cyber fraudsters for making calls and duping people across the country besides using the phone numbers for opening bank accounts. As the SIM cards were activated on forged documents, they easily dodged the police teams.
PRAYAGRAJ: Cops at cyber police station of Prayagraj busted a gang involved in selling SIM cards activated on forged documents to cyber fraudsters in West Bengal for duping people online. Three members of the gang had been arrested, police said.
Cyber fraudsters had recently siphoned off ₹16.78 lakh from the bank account of a retired government employee. A case was registered at the cyber police station and investigations were being carried out. Cops traced the phone number which was used to call the victim and arrested five cyber fraudsters of Jharkhand and sent them to jail.
IG Range Rakesh Singh said on the basis of further investigations cyber station police team under inspector Rajiv Kumar Tiwari arrested Sujan Mandal, Vishwajeet Barman and Ashish Barman of Malda district in West Bengal with some smart phones. The trio was produced before Malda court and brought to Prayagraj on transit remand.
Sujan Mandal disclosed during questioning that earlier he used to work as a manager in Jio company in West Bengal. To complete the target of selling SIM cards he used to activate SIM cards by forging Aadhar cards with the help of Ashish and Vishwajeet and sell them to cyber fraudsters for ₹80 to 100. They usually sold SIM cards to one Alam Sheikh of Malda. These SIM cards were then used by cyber fraudsters for making calls and duping people across the country besides using the phone numbers for opening bank accounts. As the SIM cards were activated on forged documents, they easily dodged the police teams.
