Odisha police intensified its crackdown on the SIM box racket with recent raids in Ranchi where five SIM boxes were seized. This development is part of an ongoing investigation that earlier unearthed a similar racket in Cuttack.
According to a senior police official, the latest seizures include 17 SIM boxes and 678 operational SIM cards from Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, and Ranchi. He added that Bhubaneswar Police Commissioner Sanjeeb Panda confirmed recovering 222 SIM cards and 5 SIM boxes from Ranchi, with CDRs under analysis.
The remand period of Raju Mondal, arrested earlier in this case, expired on August 22. The police will seek an additional seven days of remand to probe the matter further. The NIA and DoT have also provided support during the interrogation of Mondal; they have been scrutinizing the evidence given by him.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the primary accused, Ashdur Jamman—a citizen of Bangladesh—was masterminding the racket from Dhaka. He is an entrepreneur and runs a software company based in Dhaka. According to the police, he was heading the SIM box operations from abroad.
The probe began when the police busted a SIM box racket in Cuttack on August 19. This followed raids initiated based on information Mondal provided after his arrest the day before. During these raids, the police identified multiple SIM boxes and operational SIM cards, which confirmed Mondal’s maintenance of these devices at a hired house.
These SIM boxes typically masquerade international calls as local ones. Often to facilitate illicit activities such as cybercrime, terrorism, money laundering, and drug trafficking. Further technical analysis of the call records will reveal the exact use.
A special squad under the supervision of DCP Bhubaneswar had earlier detected similar operations in Bhubaneswar. They found five operational and two standby SIM boxes, with 255 active SIMs in Bhubaneswar. Mondal managed these operations and received payments through Hawala channels from the Bangladeshi operator who set up the network.
According to Mondal, they used the SIM boxes to reroute calls from Pakistan, China, and Middle Eastern countries into India. Making them appear as local calls.
ANI
