In the Nagaon and Morigaon districts of Assam, five people have been arrested for supplying pre-activated SIM cards to Pakistani agents. The men arrested have been identified as Ashiqul Islam, Bodor Uddin, Mijanur Rahman and Wahiduz Zaman, all from Nagaon, and Baharul Islam from Morigaon.
The arrests were made with the help of a central intelligence agency after a probe report by that agency on the jihadi activities in the state found that 10 persons hailing from Nagaon and Morigaon districts were involved in anti-national activities. These 10 people were procuring SIM Cards from different service providers fraudulently and supplying those to some Pakistani agents. Out of these 10 suspects, five have been arrested, while the other five are absconding. The arrests led to the recovery of incriminating materials such as several mobile phones, SIM cards, and a handset used to share defence information with a foreign embassy.
The accused had procured the SIM cards using documents of other mobile phone customers, activated the SIM cards, and sent them to Pakistan. They were also sending OTP codes to the agent in Pakistan. Baharul Islam, one of the arrested accused, runs a mobile phone and computer shop, from where the agent in Pakistan was being contacted. Police also recovered 18 Mobile Phones, 136 SIM Cards and other items from their possession.
Prasanta Kumar Bhuyan, IGP (L&O) and Spokesperson of Assam Police, said, “Based on inputs by a Central Agency and also inputs from reliable sources it came to light that approximately 10 persons from Nagaon and Morigaon districts are involved in procuring SIM cards from different service providers fraudulently and supplying those to some Pakistani agents and thus working against the integrity and sovereignty of the nation. Accordingly, last night an operation was led by Additional SP (Crime), SDPO Kaliabor and several Police Officers of Nagaon district which resulted in the apprehension of five persons,”
The Police Spokesperson Prasanta Bhuyan said that they conducted an operation on Tuesday night after their sources told them about their hideout, the operation was successful and the Police were able to bust the illegal and anti-state activities of the group.
The items that were recovered from the arrested people and houses of the other five absconding accused are 18 mobile phones, 136 SIM cards suspected to have been procured for fraudulent and illegal purposes, one fingerprint scanner, one high-tech CPU, and some documents such as birth certificates, passbook, and photographs. The SIM cards supplied to agents in Pakistan also include eSIM, the latest variant of SIM.
During interrogation, it was divulged that Ashiqul Islam was using a mobile phone with two IMEI numbers from which a WhatsApp call was made, sharing defence information with a Foreign Embassy. “That specific mobile phone was found in his possession. Other nabbed people were also found technically involved in this connection. A thorough interrogation along with the IB officials is underway,” Mr Bhuyan added.
It is also being speculated that the same gang was also involved in fake Adhaar and Voter ID cards for illegal immigrants.
A case has been registered at Nagaon Police Station under Section 120(B), 121(A), 419, 468, 471, 34 of IPC, R/W Sec 18, 18B, 19 of UA(P) Act, 1967.
Several such operations in the past
Two weeks earlier on the 24th of February, the Assam Police busted a similar racket in which it was able to recover 11 mobile phones, a Pulsar bike with the registration number AS-02A-H5609, and a total of 1,720 SIM cards. The Police after this successful operation said “We have arrested a total of 4 persons, and a total of 1702 SIM Cards were recovered from the house of two arrested persons. We are currently analyzing all the SIM cards and trying to establish to which company these SIM cards belong. On preliminary investigation, we found that this group has been selling these SIM cards on e-commerce platforms such as Zomato, Swiggy, etc. This gang has been operating in Moirabari for a long time”.
Last year in December two cybercriminals were arrested by the Morigaon district police, and a large number of items were recovered from their possession. Abdul Aziz and Abdul Mazit were identified as the arrested duo. During the combing operation based on intelligence, they were nabbed. Police found 262 SIM cards, 31 ATM cards, 9 pan cards, 8 voter ID cards, and a checkbook. Additionally, a printer, five mobile phones, two high-end laptops, and a WiFi router were also recovered from their possession by the district police.
The heavy influx of illegal immigrants and their subsequent intermingling into the population by procuring documents such as Aadhaar and PAN through illegal means has made incidents like these a common phenomenon in Assam’s border districts. The police have been successful in busting several such rackets. OpIndia did a report on this which can be accessed here
