B’luru vendor held for selling SIMs cards to dubious customers

Bengaluru, March 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) A mobile shop owner was arrested for allegedly selling SIM cards to customers, including foreign nationals and drug peddlers without verifying their address proof and identity documents, police said.

"We have arrested accused Syed Sibgathullah, 32, and sealed his retail mobile shop at Kammanahalli in the city's northeast suburb selling SIM cards to customers without verifying their identity as per the know your customer (KYC) norms," city Crime Branch Deputy Commissioner of Police Kuldip Jain told IANS here.

On a tip-off from an informer, police filed an FIR against Sibgathullah under sections 420, 465 and 468 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) that he was selling subscriber identity module (SIM) cards to customers by misleading mobile operators on their identity or bona fides.

"We trapped him by sending a decoy to his shop on Saturday for buying a SIM card without address proof and other identity documents like Aadhar card, which are mandatory for new mobile connections," Jain said.

Initial interrogation revealed that he would give his other numbers to third-party members of the operators who call to verify the address proof and identity documents to confirm on behalf of the dubious customers.

"On activating the SIM cards by operators, Sibgathullah used to collect Rs 500-1,000 per card from each fake customer, mostly from Africa, the Gulf region and South East Asia and overstaying in the city for white-collar crimes or peddling banned drugs," asserted Jain

A local court on Monday allowed the accused to be in police custody for interrogation and investigation into the case, which has overseas ramifications as most of the customers are foreigners.

Police also recovered a couple of mobile phones the vendor was using to check their call records for ascertaining if there are any accomplice with him in the crime.

Source: IANS