New Delhi, Aug 12 (IANS) Delhi Police have busted an international racket supplying fake SIM cards, which duped a person in the national capital by impersonating as a senior government functionary, an official said on Friday.
A senior Delhi Police official told IANS that on April 7, a case was registered at the Cyber Cell in which a fraudster impersonated as a senior government official using the WhatsApp display profile and the name of that dignitary and demanded financial favour in the shape of Amazon gift vouchers by pretending to be in trouble.
"During investigation, technical analysis concluded that the main culprit was operating from Nigeria," DCP K.P.S. Malhotra said.
The Amazon gift vouchers so cheated were made available on different groups of Telegram, Paxful.com and other social media groups by the accused person operating from Nigeria.
"A team of Cyber Cell collected the traces and joined the necessary dots to track the Indian associates of the Nigerian national involved in the crime," the officer said.
Subsequently, one accused, identified as Nitin Tomar, was arrested from Pune, and 42 SIM cards procured on fake IDs were recovered from his possession.
Tomar disclosed that he used to procure SIM cards from one Parmanand Sahu through a Telegram group. To earn more profit, he started selling the SIM cards he purchased through the website in the name of Bullashop.com.
"Later, Parmanand Sahu, who is a resident of Chhattisgarh, was arrested from near the Red Fort in Delhi when he had come here to sell the SIM cards in the gray market. Two hundred SIM cards procured on fake IDs were recovered from his possession," Malhotra.
Sahu disclosed that he procured the SIM cards from the vendors, promoting sale of service providers. He procured the fake IDs from a Telegram group and supplied them to the salespersons.
During the investigation, 143 SIM more cards were recovered at Sahu's instance, the officer said, adding that further investigation is in progress.
Besides Bains, Paramjit Singh Pamma, Jasbir Kaur, Baljinder Kaur and Pardeep Kumara surrendered in the court of Judicial Magistrate Harsimranjit Kaur. Two other accused -- Karamjit Singh Bains and Sukhchain Singh -- are in judicial custody. All seven were declared proclaimed offender on April 12.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea by Punjab BJP leader Jagjit Singh seeking CBI probe into the cold-blooded murder of famous Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala. A bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and Abhay Oka said the case should not be given a political colour and Punjab is supposed to take care of it and they are taking care of the matter.
The police have recovered 5.57 kg heroin, 17 kg opium, 25 kg ganja, seven quintals poppy husk, 2.25 lakh intoxicant pills and capsules, etc, after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas.
The authorities were directed to commence classes in Medical Colleges of Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Sangrur from next year. Free medicines should be provided to patients in the hospitals of the medical colleges as early as possible, he added.
In 2022, the two most populous regions are both in Asia: Eastern and South-Eastern Asia with 2.3 billion people (29 per cent of the global population), and Central and Southern Asia with 2.1 billion (26 per cent). China and India, with more than 1.4 billion each, accounted for most of the population in these two regions. The world's population is projected to reach 8 billion on November 15, 2022.
The Chief Minister accused SAD leaders, Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal, of conniving with the governments at the Centre to dilute the claims of Punjab over Chandigarh. He categorically asked Sukhbir Badal to explain that why the SAD was tightlipped about Chandigarh when they were partners in the successive government at the Centre.
