CBI arrests Vodafone area sales manager for ‘helping’ cyber criminals
New Delhi: The CBI has arrested an area sales manager of Vodafone for alleged complicity in facilitating an organised phishing ecosystem by helping in the fraudulent issuance of SIM cards in bulk, officials said on Thursday.
The arrested accused has been identified as Binu Vidhyadharan, an area sales manager at Vodafone in New Delhi. His arrest marks a significant development in the CBI’s efforts to dismantle the technical and logistical backbone supporting organised cybercrime networks operating within and outside India.
The case traces its origin to December 2025, when the CBI uncovered and disrupted a multi-layered phishing network operating from the National Capital Region and Chandigarh, which was selling bulk SMS services to cybercriminals, including those operating from foreign shores and targeting Indian residents. During the operation, the agency came to know that around 21,000 SIM cards were procured in gross violation of DoT norms and were being used to transmit phishing messages on a large scale.
The CBI had arrested three accused persons, including a channel partner of the telecom service provider, in connection with the case in December 2025. They are presently under judicial custody.
Investigations further revealed the role of the arrested telecom official. The area sales manager, according to the CBI, actively helped in the fraudulent activation of SIM cards by making arrangements for dummy individuals and false projection of dummy individuals as employees of M/s Lord Mahavira Services India Pvt. Ltd. Their documents were allegedly submitted for KYC formalities by means of bypassing verification protocols that are mandatory.
Investigators said that members of a family living in Bengaluru were also among those provided by the accused and falsely shown as employees of the firm. Copies of their Aadhaar cards were recovered from the possession of the arrested official. The SIM cards obtained using these were later used to operate the phishing infrastructure uncovered during the investigation. It is widely recognised that most cyber frauds start with phishing.
