Bhubaneswar: The Crime Branch of Odisha Police has reportedly arrested another accused involved in the SIM card fraud case. The accused has been identified as 24-year-old Deepak Kumar Nayak of the Balimela area of Malkanagiri district. He was arrested yesterday but forwarded to the court today.
Deepak is currently working as Territorial Sales Manager of Airtel at Parlakhemundi of Gajapati district. A case was filed against him under section 419/420/467/468/471/120-B/34 IPC r/w Sec. 66-C/66-D of Information Technology Act, 2000 for porting pre-activated BSNL and Vodafone SIMs in bulk to Airtel and helping Dusmant Sahoo, the mastermind of the crime who has been already nabbed and jailed.
It is to be noted here that the Crime Branch had on May 1 busted the pre-activated SIM card racket and arrested the prime accused, Dusmant Sahoo and his two associates Sai Prakash Das and Avinash Nayak. A telecom company’s distributor Amitabh Sahoo of Motangaon in Dhenkanal district and retailer Dalagobinda Parida of Kamakhyanagar were also arrested for their role in the crime.
Dushmanta Sahu used to procure pre-activated SIM cards from Amitabh and Dalagobinda at high prices and sell them to cybercriminals, who use to do cybercrime by using those SIM cards. They even had created fake WhatsApp accounts of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla by using those numbers and had requested money from some MPs and other people.
Cops had seized more than 19600 pre-activated SIM cards, 48 mobile phones, laptop, xerox copies of several photo identity cards and other documents from Dushmanta. Cash worth Rs 14 lakh was also seized from his possession.
Ms Kalinga