The Surat city Special Operations Group (SOG) busted a racket on Mar 20, which supplied pre-activated Indian SIM cards to Dubai for their utilisation by Chinese gaming companies.
The SOG has nabbed a duo in this case, which includes a Surat native residing in Dubai, Ajay Sojitra, and another from Nadiad, Sahad Farooq Baguna, who came to pick up the delivery of the 192 SIM cards.
The authorities have launched a search for another three Surat residents involved in this nexus.
Pre-activated SIM card suppliers busted
A watch was set up at the Surat railway station after an intel was received by the Surat SOG assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and a head constable, leading to the accused duo.
The interrogation revealed that Ajay, a native of Surat’s Varachha area, was working at an IT (information technology) firm as an app developer in Dubai and resided with his wife and son.
He came in contact with an individual named Dinesh, a Rajasthan native also residing in Dubai, who sold pre-activated SIM cards to Chinese companies. These companies would use them for running fraudulent platforms.
Dinesh had travelled to Surat three times to supply over 1,000 SIM cards to Dubai.
Ajay received an order of these pre-activated SIM cards from Dinesh.
For this, he landed in Surat from Dubai and took delivery of the SIM cards, for which he contacted local individuals named Umesh, Reshma, and Ketan.
Dinesh informed Ajay that Sahad, their other associate, is scheduled to fly from Surat airport to Dubai on an early morning flight on Mar 20, and directed them to meet each other at Surat railway station to hand him the SIM cards.
As they met, the SOG team showed up at the scene and nabbed the perpetrators.
Nexus ran through pre-activated SIM cards
It was revealed that Ajay bought these pre-activated SIM cards from Surat for ₹1,200 to ₹1,400 each and sold them in Dubai for ₹5,000.
The SOG has registered a complaint at Mahidharpura police station and has launched a search for the absconding Umesh, Reshma, and Ketan.
Pre-activated SIM cards of different companies are used in such cases; however, all of these SIM cards in this case were found to be of Airtel. Sources suggested that Airtel SIMs have strong connectivity in Dubai.