Nepali national held for fake ID-SIM cards scam

NOIDA: The Noida unit of Special Task Force (STF) has arrested a Nepali national who supplied sim cards on fake documents to cyber thugs in foreign countries, said officials on Monday. Cops said that the accused had networks in Cambodia, Nepal, and Thailand where he supplied sim cards with a fake Indian ID.

The accused, a citizen of Nepal, has been identified as Sunil Khadka. He is an active member of a cyber gang. Police have recovered 33 SIM cards, two Nepali passports, two mobiles, a MacBook, and other suspicious items.

A senior Noida STF officer said that a tip-off was received that a gang selling SIM on fake ID cards to foreign cyber fraudsters in India is active in NCR. “The STF team called the accused for questioning and arrested him after sustained interrogations,” the senior officer said.

The matter came to light when STF police exposed a gang of cyber criminals in Bisrakh police station area. The gang was defrauding Indian citizens by opening a call center in Cambodia. During investigation, Sunil was found to be associated with the gang, but he fled to Thailand from Kolkata. On April 19, he came back to India and was staying at the Hotel in Greater Noida when the STF team received information and arrested him.

Police investigations revealed that the arrested accused was once a PhD student and had gone to Thailand in 2007 for business purposes. During this time, he met his Nepali friend Shyam Adhikari and subsequently immersed himself in cybercrimes. “Preliminary investigation revealed that the arrested accused used to send the SIM to its destination via Nepal by taking money in dollars,” the officer added.