One arrested, 13 SIM Boxes seized by Bengal STF
Kolkata: In a search operation conducted by the Bengal Special Task Force at two places in North 24-Parganas, 13 sets of SIM Boxes were seized and one person was arrested for allegedly running the illegal ‘SIM Box’ gang.
The accused person, identified as Kabir Dafadar (47), is a resident of Hakimpur at Swarupnagar Thana in North 24-Parganas. Apart from the 13 SIM Box machines, many Internet routers and approximately 600 SIM cards valued to around Rs 15 lakh were also seized.
Search operations were conducted on Friday at Petrapole Bazar and at the unauthorised under-construction three-storey house of the arrested person. A SIM Box is an illegally running specially designed software-cum-hardware system used to bypass the government’s regulated telephone exchange system to evade taxation or tariff of the Department of Telecommunication. This may cause huge loss of revenue to the government as well as increase security risks. The miscreants procured numerous fake Indian SIM Cards fraudulently by deceiving citizens.
On August 11, Bengal STF had submitted a complaint at Malipanchghora Police Station of Howrah Police Commissionerate against running of this SIM Box racket. In that case, eight people were arrested and 33 SIM Box machines were seized from different locations of South Bengal. The investigation of the case was taken over by the Bengal STF.
