Post News Network
Kendrapara, July 9: Police Thursday detained 14 persons on the charges of circulating mobile SIM cards to subscribers through fake and forged documents.
A special squad led by SDPO Purna Chandra Pradhan conducted raids on five distributor centers in the township and its outskirts and seized huge quantity of SIM cards, fake documents and two computer sets, said SP Satish Kumar Gajbhiye.
“Those detained were mostly circulating pre-activated SIMs without adhering to legitimate procedures. Against forged documents and proof of identity, the SIM cards were being sold out in the market, posing law and order threat,” the SP said.
The mobile service providers usually hand out a number of SIM cards to a private dealer, who in turn has to sell them after collecting the required documents. The dealers were disposing off SIM cards without proper documents, the SP said adding, in the face of competition from rival traders, the dealers were found throwing norms to the wind.
“We have come across dozens of cases in which investigation was delayed as the police failed to match the SIM card registration details of the culprits with their actual details,” Gajbhiye said.
According to preliminary inquiry, more than a thousand pre-paid SIM card connections in the district had been obtained through fake documents, police said. “The detained persons were being interrogated at Town police station and we are hopeful of making further arrests in this connection,” the SP said, adding necessary action would be initiated against the distributors who were found guilty.
The special team would conduct raids in several retail counters too in coming days with an aim at curbing the fake SIM card supply in the district, the SP said.