Bhubaneswar: After Bhubaneswar, Odisha police busted SIM box racket in Rajendra Nagar area under Madhu Patna Police Station limits of Cuttack City on Sunday.
The Commissionerate Police busted the SIM box racket in Rajendra Nagar area based on input of Raju Mondal of West Bengal, the prime accused of the SIM box racket busted at Laxmisagar area in Bhubaneswar.
According to reports, the Special squad along with Laxmisagar Police, Madhupatna Police, cyber experts reportedly visited a house in Rajendra Nagar along with Mondal and busted the SIM box racket in Cuttack City.
A total of 5 SIM Boxes, 236 active SIM cards, 310 extra SIMS cards, 40 SIM carriers, one modem, two routers, Airtel broadband and 1 wooden rack were seized during the raid.
He had taken the house on rent from December 2023 for Rs 8000 per month for the purpose of cloth business and paid the rent through phone pay.
Speaking about the Sim Box racket one of members of the scientific team said, “There are multiple SIM boxes with several SIM cards in the house. It also has internet connectivity. We will investigate to find out details about each SIM card like it is of which network and where it has been linked to and all.”
It is to be noted here that the Commissionerate Police busted a SIM box racket at Mahadevnagar in Laxmisagar area in Bhubaneswar and found out its link with Bangladesh and arrested Mondal from the spot apart from seizing seven devises including five operational and two reserved SIM boxes.
Police also seized as many as 225 operational SIM cards, 500 new and 58 old and unused Airtel SIM cards, two wireless routers, one laptop, a modem, an inverter and other articles from the spot during the raid.
In course of probe, cops came to know that Mondal had got the SIM cards and boxes from one Asdur Jamman, of Feni in Bangladeshi national and installed the devices at the rented house at Mahadevnagar in Laxmisagar area in Bhubaneswar in October last year.
The accused, whom the Commissionerate Police took on a five-day remand, used the SIM box and SIM cards to receive voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls from foreign countries like Pakistan, China and Middle East and route them as local calls.
Police said that Asadur had come to Cuttack in December to establish the SIM box operation and Mandal was looking after the maintenance. He had been granted Indian Visa valid till 24.10.2024. He visited India on 21.10.2023 via ICP Agartala and left for Bangladesh on 24.12.2023 via ICP Haridaspur (WB).
Mondal used to come from North 24 Praganas once a week to maintain the SIM boxes including internet, electricity etc.
Meanwhile, Bhubaneswar DCP Prateek Singh informed that Commissionerate Police will seek the help of other agencies during further course of investigation saying that they have found ‘Hawala’ link through which money was sent to Bhubaneswar from Bangladesh.
He further said that some people from Bangladesh were engaged in setting up SIM boxes in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and the entire syndicate will be busted.