BHUBANESWAR: The Crime Branch of Odisha Police on Thursday arrested a telecom company’s distributor Amitabh Sahoo of Motangaon in Dhenkanal district and retailer Dalagobinda Parida of Kamakhyanagar in connection with SIM card fraud case.
Prime accused of the case, Dushmanta Sahu, had reportedly procured many pre-activated SIM cards from the duo and sold the mobile phone numbers to cybercriminals in various parts of the country. The cyber frauds had created a few fake WhatsApp accounts of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla by using those numbers and had requested money from some MPs and other people.
Crime Branch officers have ascertained that Dushmanta was buying BSNL SIM card of Rs 20 by paying Rs 120 to retailers. He was paying Rs 130 to retailers to buy Vodafone SIM card that cost only Rs 25. Similarly, he was paying Rs 140 to buy Jio SIM card which is available free of cost in the market. Sahu was paying high prices for each SIM card as they were activated using forged documents.
The CB has freezed Rs 7.95 lakh from two bank accounts of Sahu and Rs 1.6 lakh from his as many Paytm accounts. Officers said Sahu has knowledge about SIM card business as he had earlier worked as collection-cum-marketing agent in Aircel and as a retailer collection and marketing agent in BSNL. He has studied BSc, PGDCA and has experience in digital marketing.
Sahu and his two associates Sai Prakash Das and Avinash Nayak, who too were arrested along with him on May 1, are presently in police remand. “The Dhenkanal area manager of Jio and Vodafone Bhubaneswar’s commercial manager will soon be questioned as hundreds of pre-activated SIM cards were seized from the accused. Dhenkanal BSNL’s general manager will also be questioned in connection with the case,” CB ADG Sanjeeb Panda said.