BHUBANESWAR: More details related to the SIM box racket case have emerged with police establishing that Bangladeshi national Asadur Zamaan was operating the devices in Bhubaneswar and Jharkhand’s Ranchi through a GSM-based remote smart switch.
Police had earlier seized seven SIM boxes from Bhubaneswar and five each from Ranchi and Cuttack. “Investigation revealed that Asadur Zamaan was operating from Bangladesh and remotely controlling the devices installed in Bhubaneswar and Ranchi by using a SIM card enabled smart switch,” said police commissioner Sanjeev Panda.
Zamaan, who founded software company - Icon Technology in Dhaka, was possibly using a mobile application to turn on and off the SIM boxes basing on the threat perception, said police sources.
Police have collected the photographs of Zamaan as part of their investigation. They had earlier arrested West Bengal native Raju Mondal for allegedly procuring the devices and fake SIM cards from Zamaan and then installing them in three rented houses in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Ranchi.
Sources said Zamaan’s photographs will be shown to the owners of the houses in Bhubaneswar and Ranchi where the SIM boxes were installed in a bid to collect evidence that he had visited the two cities to oversee the operation of the devices.
Once sufficient evidence is collected against Zamaan, city police will approach Interpol through Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to arrest him, said sources.
However, the police are yet to confirm whether the SIM boxes were used to commit cyber crimes or any other subversive activity. So far, police have seized 17 devices and 678 active SIM cards from Mondal. He was recently questioned by National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Department of Telecommunications officials in connection with the case.
Mondal’s five-day police remand ended on Thursday. Police said they will seek permission from the court to take him on seven-day remand to further question him.