SIM card case may be handed over to NIA

The Police Department is making bid to hand over a case relating to providing SIM cards to Thadiyantavide Nazir, a terror suspect, to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Deepa Cherian alias Shahina was arrested in the case for allegedly smuggling SIM cards to Ernakulam sub jail using which several international calls were made.

The investigation revealed that the phone calls were made by another terror accused on the directive of Nazir and the mobile phone used for this was also suspected to be handed over by Deepa.

 At present, the case is being investigated by a team led by Ernakulam Assistant Commissioner, Sunil Jacob.

According to police sources, the report on the case was forwarded to the Home Department and the NIA a month ago.

“The NIA would take a decision in this regard if it receives consent from the Union Home Ministry. The case by its nature has to be investigated by a national agency as the international calls from the sub jail were made to the UAE, the UK and Kazakhstan,” a police official said.  The NIA is investigating a similar case in Kannur involving a letter containing coded language sent to the jail. Meanwhile, the police sources said that they are trying to trace the people in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh to whom also calls were made from jail. A police team has been sent to these states to locate and interrogate the people using these numbers.

 It was in July the police arrested Deepa Cherian for handing over SIM cards to her lover Noushad in the jail.

She had acquired a SIM card from a shop at Palarivattom without providing any identification documents and handed it over to her lover Noushad when she visited him at the jail. Noushad was lodged in the sub jail on charges of drug trafficking during the period when Nazir and 16 other terror accused were also lodged there in connection with the Bangalore bomb blasts case.

Police suspect that an associate of Nazir made the call from the jail kitchen where checking is rare. It was during a checking of the calls transmitted from the mobile tower near jail that the jail security authorities came to know about the calls.

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The New Indian Express
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