LUCKNOW The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Thursday claimed to have busted a racket involved in duping people through online gaming applications from Dubai, Cambodia and China, using preactivated Indian SIM cards. The STF arrested a Bihar resident from Meerut for supplying preactivated Indian SIM cards to this nexus for the past few years.
In a press note shared with the media, the STF officials said the accused, identified as Ritik Raj, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, Bihar was arrested from Bhansali roadways bus stand under Sadar Bazar police station limits of Meerut and 179 preactivated Indian SIM cards were recovered from him. The officials said the accused had supplied over 4000 SIM cards to the racket operational from abroad, after activating them using forged identity cards .
The STF officials further informed that these racketeers downloaded fake UPI and gaming applications like Teen Patti and Free Fire to dupe people in India. They said the accused used to get these SIM cards for ₹400 and supplied them to the nexus for ₹2,500 per SIM card. They said the accused had created a channel with the name of fake SIM cards through which he used to remain in touch with people requiring preactivated SIM cards on forged identities.
A senior STF official said Ritik came in touch with one Ronit Kushwaha through the same channel from whom he had purchased around 2000 SIM cards and supplied them to different agents working for international fraudsters operational from Dubai, Cambodia and China. He said the names of two more persons, Wasif And Shakeel, residents of Delhi, had surfaced during his interrogation.
{{/usCountry}}A senior STF official said Ritik came in touch with one Ronit Kushwaha through the same channel from whom he had purchased around 2000 SIM cards and supplied them to different agents working for international fraudsters operational from Dubai, Cambodia and China. He said the names of two more persons, Wasif And Shakeel, residents of Delhi, had surfaced during his interrogation.
{{/usCountry}}He said these two Delhi residents, who were also suspected to be associated with the international fraudsters, were willing to purchase SIM cards for ₹2,800 per card.
He said the accused had been handed over to the local police station in Meerut for further legal proceedings after registering an FIR under IPC sections of fraud, forgery of documents and sections related to Information Technology Act against him.