Jharkhand: Anti-Terrorist Squad busts racket of cyber-criminals using sim-cards to spread communal hatred

According to Police, the SIM cards were being used to create communal disturbances by making bulk messages in the Country.
Illustration for Cyber Crime. ( Soumyadip Sinha)
Illustration for Cyber Crime. ( Soumyadip Sinha)

RANCHI: In a major achievement, Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in Jharkhand has busted a racket of cyber-criminals and recovered more than 7000 SIM Cards along with SIM Box, during a raid conducted at Kanta Toli and Kanke area in Ranchi.

According to Police, the SIM cards were being used to create communal disturbances by making bulk messages in the Country. A SIM box contains a number of SIM cards, which are linked to the gateway but housed and stored separately from it.

The SIM box operator can route international calls through the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) connection and connect the call as local traffic, allowing the box's operator to bypass international rates and often undercut prices charged by local mobile network operators.

A SIM box can have SIM cards of different mobile operators installed, permitting it to operate with several GSM gateways located in different places. Though, officials in Police Department refused to speak anything in the matter, sources revealed that at least two persons have been detained so far for interrogation. It is first time that SIM boxes have been recovered from the State and were being used create communal disturbances and execute other cyber related crimes from Ranchi.

"On a tip-off that misuse of huge number of SIM cards were being done in Kanta Toli area, a team was formed and raids were conducted during which huge quantity of SIM cards along with SIM boxes and monitors were recovered," said IG (Operations) and Jharkhand Police Spokesperson Ashish Batra. He, however, refused to share any further information citing the reason that the matter was under investigation. "As the matter is under investigation and at a premature state, hence it will be inappropriate to say anything in this regard," said Batra.

The police are trying to take all aspects under consideration to get into the details of the matter, he added. Sources in the Police department, however, claimed that a plot was created to create communal disturbances by making hate messages viral through bulk messaging done by the SIM Cards across the Country. The Police are also investigating whether the matter is related to terrorist activities or not. "These SIM boxes could have been used in the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections," said an officials requesting anonymity. Initial investigations indicate that the matter is connected to Dubai and mastermind of the racket Jeved Ahmed is said to be hiding there, he added.

Javed Ahmed got all these activated in Patna with the help of a former employee of the mobile service provided company in connivance with a senior manager rank officer in the same company. Police suspect that more than 10,000 SIM cards might have been activated for the purpose. EoM

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