BANGALORE: The Ministry of Home Affairs has directed the state police, especially the Bangalore police, to check on mobile phones that being operated with fake IDs.
The MHA stated that of the 50 crore SIM cards that are being sold by various service providers around the country, 30 crore SIMs were being used with fake identification.
It is said that in Karnataka alone, more than one crore SIMs were being used with fake IDs mainly in cities like Bangalore and Mangalore.
A source with the DG&IGP said the state police have, therefore, asked commissioners and SPs of all cities and districts to take necessary action to curb this menace, which could be dangerous, if misused by anti-social elements.
Sources said, based on these directions, the state police are now, surveying all telecom service providers for their laxity, in the name of competition.
Meanwhile, the Bangalore city police handed over the case to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) to investigate into the matter.
The CCB has in turn, cracked the whip on service providers and retailers to check on users operating with fake identification.
CAUGHT IN THE ACT
The CCB sleuths on Tuesday booked cheating cases against two Airtel retail outlets for issuing 24 SIM cards by forging identification. CCB Inspector Anand Kabburi filed complaint against Touchtone and Hotspot — two Airtel outlets — along with senior Airtel officials for their negligence.
In his complaint to the Malleswaram police station, Kabburi stated that there are many service providers, including Uninor, Vodafone, Aircel, Reliance, Tata Indicom, Docomo and BSNL were involved in such irregularities and investigations were on to book these companies.
He stated that the two retailer outlets, situated in Malleswaram 18th Cross, issued 24 SIMs, using IDs of five genuine subscribers.
Further investigations also revealed that retailers issued eight SIM cards under the name of Venkatamma, a slum dweller on Queens Road, three SIM cards under the name of Mahesh Kumar of Magadi, four SIM cards under the name of Muruga, a resident of Shivajinagar; three SIMs under the name of Ramesh Babu of Gandhinagar and three SIMs in the name of Syeeda Asma of Shivajinagar.