Bhubaneswar: The Odisha police on Monday made some startling revelations with regard to busting of SIM box rackets in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissioner of Police (CP) Sanjeeb Kumar Panda said the accused who ran SIM box rackets in Odisha has admitted that his Bangladeshi handler has similar networks in the neighbouring Jharkhand state.
While two of the SIM box rackets were busted in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, the third one is operating in Jharkhand. A team of the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police will soon visit Jharkhand and intensify raids there, Panda told media persons.
“We have so far seized 12 SIM boxes during the raids in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. Our team has seized a total of 481 SIM cards from both places. We have also seized extra 810 stand-by SIM cards kept by the accused duo. Raid is also on in all the hotels that the main accused Asadur Jaman stayed in during his visit to Odisha,” informed Panda.
“The equipment was used to make international and national calls without the receiver getting scope to know the source of the call. The devices were also used to operate several crimes, including terrorist activities,” he added.
“With the help of his Bangladeshi handler Asadur, the arrested accused Raju Mandal, hailing from West Bengal, was operating the SIM boxes from rented houses in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. His work was to ensure that the internet, power and other services function properly,” he added.
As per reports, Mandal used to take goods from Odisha to Kolkata and then sold them in Bangladesh. It is there he was befriended by Asadur who gave him the SIM box idea. The SIM boxes were used to bypass international calls to Pakistan, China and the Middle East.
Talking about the raid in Cuttack, Panda informed, “With the help of Madhupatna police, our team had conducted a raid at a residential house ‘Brundaban Bhawan’ and unearthed the SIM box operation. At least 5 active SIM boxes using at least 200 SIM cards were recovered from the house. We have also seized 310 extra SIMs with a router and modem.”
