BERHAMPUR: Aryapalli Maritime police on Friday arrested two persons, including a foreman of Gopalpur port, on charges of illegal sale of Indian SIM cards to foreign nationals who arrived at the port by sea route.
The accused were identified as G Shamba, the 49-year-old foreman, and A Kamaya, who owns a mobile phone shop. Both belong to Katuru village under Ganjam’s Chhatrapur block. A total of 70 SIM cards and $22 were seized from them.
Chhatrapur SDPO Chandan Ghadei said that following a tip-off that Indian SIM cards were being illegally sold to foreign nationals, police were monitoring the situation. When a ship anchored at the port on Friday, a police team reached the spot.
The police found Shamba’s activities near the ship suspicious, following which they questioned him. Shamba said that he was a foreman at the port but could not explain his presence at the scene, after which the police conducted a search and seized 34 pre-activated SIM cards from him.
Upon further questioning, he admitted to being at the port to sell the SIM cards, which he had purchased from Kamaya. Following this, police raided Kamaya’s shop and seized more 36 SIM cards from him.
Further investigations revealed that Shamba purchased SIM cards from Kamaya at a price of Rs 40 and used to sell them to foreign nationals for as high as Rs 2,000. The foreigners reportedly used these SIMs for WhatsApp calls and data services and destroy them before leaving the port.
Ghadei said that further investigation is on to find out if anyone else was involved in the illegal trade. Officials from Gopalpur port were unavailable for comment on the issue.