Selling pre activated SIM cards lands seven in police soup

Seven persons were arrested for allegedly selling pre-activated SIM card to NDFB-S militant.

Seven persons were arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on Tuesday for allegedly selling pre-activated SIM card to National Democratic Front of Bodoland – Songbo (NDFB-S) militant Sanjay Bordoloi Sibigiri.

The arrests took place after police found that Sibigiri, who arrived in Bangalore on January 21 at 12:30 PM, had managed to buy a Vodafone SIM card which had been activated in advance at 09:30 AM on the day of his arrival.

He had bought this “pre-activated” SIM card and began using it the same day. A team of the CCB team contacted the SIM card retailer through whom this SIM card was purchased and found that the SIM was not issued in Sibigiri’s name but against a fake name and documents.

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Police said that the accused persons used a shortcut to sell pre-activated SIM to attract more customers. SIM cards were activated on a daily basis and given to a list of select retail stores.

In case a customer comes up with address proof documents he is given a pre-activated SIM but his verification documents are used to activate another SIM card and sold to some other customer, police said. The police have booked a case against the retailers, distributors and officials of Vodafone.

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