Mumbai Crime: Two shopkeepers held for colluding with cyber criminals

The arrested accused ran mobile shops in Kandivli West and Borivli East. Representation pic

The Bangur Nagar police have arrested the shopkeepers of two mobile stores who had allegedly been issuing SIM cards to gang members involved in cyber fraud on receiving forged documents. The matter came to light after the office of the state department of telecommunications (Dursanchar Mantralaya) at Andheri East alerted the network service provider concerned.

The arrested accused are Kamlesh Jayshree Prasad, who ran the Sneha telecom mobile shop at Ajanta Shopping Centre on Station Road in Kandivli West and Rajiv Ranjan, who ran the Om Mobile Shop on Carter Road No. 4 in Borivli East.

The police also seized forged documents and detained a person who is allegedly involved in cyber fraud. According to the police, the complainant is a nodal officer of the network service provider. The duty of such officers is to work with law enforcement agencies and the legal team of their companies.

In December 2022, the Dursanchar Mantralaya office, which is located at the Saki Vihar telephone exchange, notified the nodal officer that suspicious activities were happening involving many SIM cards. The officer checked the details provided by the office and found that many numbers were unreachable and had not been in use for several months. It was also learnt that the numbers were linked to cyber fraud activities.

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When the nodal officer checked the customer application forms, he found that the photos on them did not match those on their supporting documents. When the officer sought to verify the documents, he found that they were forged.

The officer then approached the Bangur Nagar police, which ultimately discovered that the SIM cards were issued by the shops in Kandivli and Borivli. The police found out that these shops' employees had uploaded fake images of the people who purchased SIM cards as well as forged documents on the network service provider's portal.

A police source said, "During the investigation, we found that the shopkeepers issued SIM cards with fake names to a gang that is carrying out cyber fraud activities in Mumbai and uploaded forged documents. We also detained a person who is suspected to be involved and to have used these SIM cards. We are taking the cyber police's help. More accused will be arrested soon."

Ajay Bansal, DCP, Zone XI, said, "We have arrested two people who issued SIM cards to the people who forged documents and used fake photos. More people will be arrested." The Bangur Nagar police arrested the accused under Sections 120-B, 34, 419, 420, 465, 467, 471 and 468 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66 of the IT Act.

Dec 2022
Month that the matter came to light