Bhubaneswar/Ranchi: The accused Raju Mandal is to be brought back to Odisha after the Ranchi disclosure in the SIM Box racket, said reports on Wednesday. The Special squad of Commissionerate Police Bhubaneswar-Cuttack intensified its probe into the SIM Box racket seized five more SIM boxes from Ranchi on August 20.
The Commissionerate Police along with Laxmisagar Police and accused Raju Mandal reached Ranchi and with active cooperation and support from Ranchi police, the team located the rented house of Haji Sohel Malik Maulana Azad Colony, Lane no 15, near Manan Chowk under Namkum PS.
Raju Mandal had taken the house on rent with monthly rent is Rs 7500. Mandal had set up the SIM boxes. He used to visit the place once a week to maintain electricity, internet, and replace the inactive SIM cards.
Asadur Zaman had got the SIM boxes delivered in West Bengal to Raju Mandal. Then Raju had taken the SIM boxes to Ranchi by Train and set up the SIM boxes as per direction of Asadur.
Asadur used to send money through Hundi to Raju for the expenses. All the SIM cards are pre activated AIRTEL sims from West Bengal. Asadur had procured the SIMs and got those delivered through code word to Raju.
Seized articles:
SIMBOX: 5
ACTIVE SIMS: 219
Inactive SIMS: 40
Inverter battery
Modem Jio
Router: 2
Smart switch: 1
Cyber Cell of Jharkhand Police, CID Crime Branch of Jharkhand, Special Branch of Jharkhand Police, Officers of Namkum PS and Lower Bazar PS of Ranchi Police also actively participated in the raid, interrogated the accused Raju Mandal and provided all the support for search and seizure. The search and seizure continued for six hours.
After seizure, the team will come back to Bhubaneswar for further investigation.
It is to be noted here that the Commissionerate Police busted the SIM box racket at Mahadevnagar in Laxmisagar area in Bhubaneswar on August 17 and found out its link with Bangladesh. They arrested Mondal from the spot and seized seven devises including five operational and two reserved SIM boxes.
Later on August 19, the Commissionerate Police busted the SIM box racket in Rajendra Nagar area of Cuttack City based on input of Raju Mondal of West Bengal. 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.
The Commissionerate Police took the accused on a five-day remand to interrogate him and extract more information about the racket from him. Based on his inputs, the police visited Ranchi and seized several devices including five SIM Boxes from the rented house of Mondal.
