2,197 SIM cards issued on forged documents blocked, 13 arrested

MUMBAI: As many as 13 people have been arrested in the city in a joint operation by the Mumbai police and the Department of Telecom (DoT) over the last three days for selling SIM cards activated using forged documents. The DoT has also blocked 2,197 SIM cards obtained on the same set of documents.

The police suspect that the gang has so far sold around 8,500 SIM cards either to cybercriminals or fake call centre operators for between ₹500 and ₹1,000 per card.

After obtaining information from telecom service providers (TSPs), police teams from VP Road, DB Marg, Malabar Hill, Sahar and Bangur Nagar police stations along with DoT officials raided several places and arrested the accused.

Satyanarayan Chaudhary, joint commissioner of police (law and order), said, “The accused forged documents like Aadhaar cards to get SIM cards. We found that the photos on different Aadhaar cards were of the same people and only their clothes were different in each of the photos.”

One of the accused, Abdul Hakim Mansuri, arrested in Malabar Hill, during interrogation revealed that he has so far obtained 650 SIM cards in his own name by using different sets of documents and photographs and sold the same to other criminals.

The arrested people have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for forgery and cheating and criminal breach of trust. The police are now searching for those to whom the gang sold the SIM cards.

Chaudhary said the accused had sold SIM cards to a fake call centre in Bhayandar, which was also raided. “The probe is at a primary stage and more details will emerge as the investigation progresses,” Chaudhary added.

The police said the actions will help curb cybercrimes, which have increased sharply in the last few years, as bank accounts opened and SIM cards obtained using forged or bogus documents play a crucial role in commission of such crimes.