Crime Branch unearths SIM box racket in Mayurbhanj; 6 held
Crime Branch unearths SIM box racket in Mayurbhanj; 6 held
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Mayurbhanj: The Odisha Police Crime Branch uncovered a SIM box ring by detaining six fraudsters in the Mayurbhanj area.
Vishal Khandelwal, the gang's leader, Tapas Kumar Patra, Nigam Patra, Sudhansu Das, Aju Patra, and Ajay Kumar Patra have been named as the defendants. A report by the Department of Telecommunications led to the raids at Betanati and Baripada on Tuesday, resulting in their capture. They were found to be in possession of a number of pre-activated SIM cards as well as other tools for the illicit phone exchange.
Sources claim that the gang tricked people across the nation by using pre-activated SIM cards to create KYC-related fraud messages in the SIM boxes. Khandelwal, alias Jonti, bought SIM boxes and hired Tapas to use pre-activated SIM cards that Sudhansu and Nigam provided to send phoney messages to individuals.
The investigation showed that Bihar and Odisha were the bases of operation for the SIM box scam. While the apprehended gang members' primary duty was to send false KYC-related communications, their Bihar counterparts were defrauding victims who fell for the messages by withdrawing money from their accounts, a Crime Branch officer informed the media.
It is important to note that in July 2017, the Odisha Police broke up a similar ring in Berhampur. Four people were subsequently detained by the police for using SIM boxes to run an unauthorised phone exchange at Chhota Rajan's command. The members of Rajan's gang had demanded Rs 2 crore in extortion from a Mumbai builder over the phone.
