BENGALURU: Central Crime Branch (CCB) police have busted a fake SIM card racket in the city with the arrest of four men in Hanumantha Nagar police limits.
They have also seized 19 mobile phones, two scanners, two CPUs, one printer and `58,850 from the accused.
Nagaraju (24) of Raghavendra Block in Srinagara, N Ramesh (33) and N Jagadeesh (30), both from Hanumantha Nagar, and Ravikumar (28) of Raghavendra Nagar were arrested on Monday.
The accused are owners of mobile phone stores in different localities in the city. They operated the racket in collusion with SIM card distributors, police said.
The four had sold and activated 2,310 illegal SIM cards of various companies using duplicate identity cards and passport photos of genuine customers.
Crime Branch official K C Giri told Express that in 2011, the police had taken action against a few SIM card distributors for such illegal activities.
Police have registered cases under Sections 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code.
Modus Operandi
The accused would scan identity cards, photographs and other documents provided by genuine customers for SIM cards, and store these in their computer. They would use these to issue SIM cards to customers who do not have proper documents, at extra cost, police said.