Bangalore: It is learnt that the Bangalore South division police arrested a SIM card vendor B S Vinay, 28, a resident of Mariyappanapalya near Jnanabharathi, who reportedly sold 3000 pre-activated SIM cards of a leading telecom operator to students and other customers without verifying the identity or residential address of the buyer at his Yashwantpur Main Road outlet.
The police including women police constables in mufti contacted the vendor as customers. All three got their requested SIM without giving the required documentation.
The arrest came out of a drive conducted by the police following the previous arrest of a SIM card vendor from Shivajinagar who was accused of murdering his six year old niece and 64 year old uncle.
Revelations about the racket
Vinay’s subsequent revelations to the police are shocking to say the least. Reportedly he said that as a distributor of a leading telecom operator, he had a target of 3000 SIM cards per month, of which he could manage just 500 at Rs: 75 per card. His cut? Rs: 5 per card. No register of the sims sold was maintained.
He even had about 150 sub dealers selling on his behalf and obviously officers of the telecom operator are hand in glove in this operation or else activation would have been impossible.
How was the documentation managed?
Vinay confessed he used documents which genuine buyers had tendered as proof for those who did not have documents. Even the photographs of genuine buyers were used as photo proofs.
In these days of heightened crime and terrorism, this is a frightening development.
