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Cops bust SIM card racket, one arrested [Trichy] [Times of India](Times of India Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TRICHY: Beware! Your proof of identity and address submitted to a distributor for getting a SIM card may be misused. With the arrest of a person involved in selling activated SIM cards without seeking proof, the city police have brought to light a major lapse on the part of telecom service providers. Police booked a case against two more men and seized 528 activated SIM cards from them on Thursday. The KK Nagar (crime) police arrested sales representative T Ravichandran, 27, of Pikshandarkovil. And the hunt is on to R Prathap, who owned the distribution company. S Mathiyas of Ponmalai in Trichy, who was manager of the company, is also absconding. Ravichandran was found selling SIM cards of two major mobile service providers near the government boys' hostel at Khajamalai on Thursday night. Acting on a tip-off, the police got caught him red-handed. On interrogation, the city police found that Ravichandran was working with a SIM card distribution company Prathap and Mathiyas was the manager of the firm. The trio had activated hundreds of SIM cards even before selling to customers by using identity proof of unknown people. The activated SIM cards were sold for Rs 30 to Rs 50 per card. Interestingly, the trio had also used the address proof of a same person to obtain more than one SIM card. When the police verified the address proof of eight mobile numbers of the SIM cards sold by the trio, they found that none of the people in the address used the numbers. Shockingly, two mobile numbers were activated using the address proof of a same person named Nagarajan. When police verified the address of Nagarajan, they found that he had passed away in 2009. But the trio used his address proof four days back to activate two SIM cards. A case was registered under Sections 419, 420, 465, 468, 471 of IPC against the accused. Police seized 470 SIM cards of Reliance and 58 SIM cards of Idea. Police said the accused committed the crime following pressure put forth by telecom service providers to reach their sales target. Police sources said their crime could have paved the way for anti-social elements to misuse the SIM cards. They also wondered as to how the mobile service providers had failed to check the credibility of the proof submitted to them by distributors. Police are on the lookout for Prathap and Mathiyas. Ravichandran was produced before the Trichy court, which remanded him in prison. (c) 2014 Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited |