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.
The passenger was intending to fly to Dubai by flight IX-141 from T3 on Thursday. Offloaded on the basis of suspicion, the man and his luggage was checked and the US currency recovered from plastic thread roll in his trolley bag.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday laid the foundation stone for the Sant Attar Singh State Institute of Medical Sciences at Mastuana Sahib in Sangrur district to come up over an area of 25 acres with an estimated cost of nearly Rs 345 crore.
The Customs officials at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow have found six gold bars in a dustbin near the immigration area at the airport. The confiscated gold bars are valued at Rs 36.60 lakh in the market.
Of the arrested trio, one was caught with 250 gms Mephedrone valued at Rs 37.50 lakh and the other with 2.70 kgs of Mephedrone worth Rs 4.14 crore in the market. After sustained interrogation, the woman accused revealed details on their two associates of whom one was picked up late on Tuesday (August 2) and the fifth was caught with the narcotics consignment on Wednesday (August 3).
Announcing an amnesty for defaulting domestic electricity consumers, Power Minister Harbhajan Singh said the outstanding electricity bills till December 31, 2021, of those who have not paid their dues till June 30, 2022, have been waived.
During the searches carried out at the factory premises over a period of two days, starting July 29, a large consignment of Ephedrine weighing 661 kg was recovered along with over 5200 kg of raw material, which was to be used in the manufacture of Ephedrine.
