Illegal SIM racket widens: CID Assam arrests 3 more, total 8 in custody
The latest arrests were made from Morigaon, Lahorighat & Nagaon, further expanding the scope of an organised cyber fraud network
File image of Assam CID Office (Photo: Internet)
Guwahati, March 17: Continuing its intensive crackdown on cybercrime linked to the illegal handling of SIM cards, the Cyber Police Station of the Crime Investigation Department (CID), Assam, has arrested three more individuals, taking the total number of arrests in the case to eight within a span of days.
The accused have been identified as Mehdi Alom Jinnah, Galib Ijaz Ahmed and Jahirul Islam.
The arrests were made from Morigaon, Lahorighat and Nagaon on Monday, further widening the scope of what investigators describe as an organised cyber fraud network.
According to CID officials, the network primarily targeted women, allegedly using their personal documents under the guise of legitimate business activities.
“We have found some links and, on that basis, arrested three more individuals. When Mehdi Alom was arrested, he stated that he had provided SIM cards to Jahirul Islam and claimed he did not know how they were being used,” said Saurav Jyoti Saikia, Senior Superintendent of Police (Cyber Crime-II), CID.
He added, “After engaging sources during the investigation, we arrested Jahirul Islam yesterday. There are more links and more people to be arrested, and we are working on that.”
Investigators suspect the accused were part of a SIM box-based operation, a method often used in cyber fraud to route illegal communications.
“They supplied SIM cards, and we suspect these were being used in SIM boxes. Evidence shows that all the SIMs were bought, recharged and deactivated together,” Saikia said, indicating a coordinated pattern of misuse.
The CID also revealed that the accused had allegedly set up handloom and textile businesses as a front, through which they enrolled several women and collected their documents.
These documents were then allegedly used to open mule bank accounts and activate SIM cards, facilitating fraudulent financial transactions.
The fresh arrests follow an earlier breakthrough in the case, when CID busted a cyber fraud ring in Kamrup district, arresting five individuals and seizing nearly 1,000 SIM cards.
Preliminary investigations at that stage had uncovered a well-organised racket involving the procurement of SIM cards using forged or misused documents, which were then deployed in large-scale cyber fraud operations.
Officials believe the latest arrests are part of the same expanding network, with more links likely to surface as the probe progresses.
The CID has indicated that further arrests are likely as efforts continue to dismantle the network involved in the illegal SIM trade and associated cybercrime activities.