On the surface, Lord Mahavira Services India Pvt. Ltd. (LMSIPL) was just another struggling business in Northeast Delhi’s Chander Lok.
But it was just a front. The four-year-old company was allegedly the heart of a ‘sophisticated’ national cyber-fraud syndicate running from NCR and Chandigarh.
The firm allegedly bypassed security protocol to obtain 20,986 illegal SIM cards in four years — the majority sourced from Vodafone Idea — the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which busted the operation in December, claimed in its submissions to a Delhi court.
The same month, the agency arrested four persons in the alleged scam.
The CBI said it arrested Vodafone Idea’s channel partner Sonveer Singh, who had allegedly facilitated the issuance of over 7,000 SIMs by “misrepresenting authorised signatories and end users”.
Two other accused, Manish Upreti and Himalaya Chauhan, were arrested for allegedly “arranging fake KYC verification” to enable “fraudulent issuance” of thousands of SIM cards, according to the CBI.
The fourth accused was Binu Vidyadharan, who was working with Vodafone Idea Ltd. as an Area Sales Manager in Delhi, as per the CBI. His role, the agency alleged, was providing certain Aadhaar cards to co-accused Himalaya for self-KYC.
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As per the agency, all four accused conspired with Mahavira Services to “facilitate phishing, fraudulent messages, and cybercrime activities using illegally obtained SIM connections”.
When contacted, a VI (Vodafone Idea) spokesperson said, “This matter is currently under investigation and we are cooperating with the authorities concerned and providing all necessary support.”
Meanwhile, the accused have since been granted bail by a Delhi court.
On Tuesday, Chauhan and Upreti were granted bail. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Jyoti Maheshwari of Rouse Avenue court said, “… the investigation is already complete qua the accused and thus, no ground is warranted to keep both… in further detention… additionally, the apprehension expressed by the investigating agency can be allayed by imposing suitable stringent conditions. This Court is mindful of the alarming rise in cyber-crimes and the magnitude of the offence, but the role of each accused is to be seen independently and cannot be made out to be larger than what it actually is only under the garb of rise of cyber crimes.”
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Sonveer secured bail on February 4. In her order, the ACJM noted: “… the investigating agency has failed to show any nexus or role of the accused in the alleged criminal conspiracy, other than mere issuance of SIM cards, which the applicant/ accused was undertaking, as a part of his professional responsibilities”.
On January 9, ACJM Maheshwari granted bail to Binu. She had said in her order, “… even if the allegations and the role of the accused as alleged by CBI is taken to its highest, the accused has only been negligent in discharge of his official duties in order to fulfil the sales target. The element of conspiracy which the prosecution has sought to show in the present case is glaringly missing and cannot be made out, even if all the allegations of the prosecution are taken to be true.”
The CBI’s case
As per the CBI, “Lord Mahavira Services India Pvt. Ltd. had obtained bulk mobile connections from Telecom Service Providers, particularly Vodafone Idea Ltd, in violation of DoT (Department of Telecommunication) guidelines”.
As per the CBI’s submissions, the illegal SIMs were allegedly given to cyber fraudsters across the country who used them to make fraudulent calls impersonating officials from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, among others, to dupe people.
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The CBI said initially, several complaints were received through the Department of Telecommunications’ Chakshu portal.
Out of 210 complaints, 189 involved numbers linked to Mahavira Services, the CBI told the court. There were reported financial losses of lakhs, with complainants alleging they had been cheated through SMSes.
As per procedure, DoT had directed Vodafone Idea to re-verify bulk connections. Following this exercise, the firm deemed 99% of over 5,800 flagged numbers to be “compliant” which appeared suspicious to the CBI, it said. The agency, which worked closely with the DoT, registered a case against Lord Mahavira.
The CBI then probed the huge number of “fake” SMSes sent from SIMs. It said it found possible tampering of IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity), a unique identifier assigned to mobile devices. Its probe also showed signs of the possibility of existence of SIM Boxes — a device designed to hold hundreds of SIM cards simultaneously, used to route international calls as local calls, bypassing charges and regulatory norms.
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The agency said searches were conducted at several locations in Delhi, Noida, and Chandigarh and the arrests were made.
The system used for phishing included servers, communication devices, USB hubs, dongles, and thousands of SIM cards. It was using this setup that lakhs of fraud messages were allegedly being sent every day, as per the CBI’s submissions in court. The agency also seized unaccounted cash and cryptocurrency during its raids.
The CBI is being represented by Public Prosecutors Saloni and Anoop Kumar in court.
The accused, their role
As per the CBI, Chauhan, a Point of Sale (PoS) agent for Vodafone Idea Ltd, had allegedly “falsely represented himself as the authorised signatory of LMSIPL” to “falsely procure more than 6,000 SIM cards”. He also allegedly “projected several individuals as end users and employees of LMSIPL”, who, in reality, never worked at the company.
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A similar role had been assigned to Upreti by the CBI.
On Binu’s role, the CBI alleged he arranged dummy individuals, falsely projecting them as employees of Mahavira Services, and submitted their documents to complete the KYC formalities.
