Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh), Oct 1 (IANS) Five members of a gang that sold SIM cards to cyber fraudsters and criminals, have been arrested by a joint team of Army Intelligence (Lucknow), Special Operations Group (Narcotics) and Kareli police.
The members were arrested on Thursday while selling SIMs to criminals near Lal Colony in the city.
The police have seized around 1,000 SIMs and forged documents from their possession.
The arrested persons have been identified as Abdul Khalid, Shriram Chaurasia, Zishan Ahmad, Vikas Kesarwani and Krishna Kumar.
Inspector (Kareli) Anupam Sharma said the arrested persons had sold SIM cards to law-breakers at high prices after creating fake IDs.
"The miscreants are experts in generating fake IDs with a mobile app and selling SIMs to cyber criminals and others. They sold at least two SIM cards on a single ID. After selling a SIM to a customer with his original ID and activating it, they used to call the same customer pretending that their ID, which they had submitted for SIM, had gone missing and sought another ID for activation of the SIM card," he said explaining their modus operandi.
The gang was also expert in generating fake IDs to sell SIM cards of a prominent cellular provider company. They were supplying fake activated SIMs to cyber criminals and a city-based call centre.
Rejecting all opposition to his elevation, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi appointed Navjot Singh Sidhu as the party's new Punjab unit President along with four Working Presidents.
Calling the reports of alleged snooping on prominent citizens using Israeli Pegasus spyware as "baseless", the ruling BJP on Monday said there is not a single shred of evidence so far that links either the central government or the party to this controversy.
Congress MPs from both Houses had met on Sunday afternoon at Rajya Sabha member Pratap Singh Bajwa's residence to discuss the issues related to Punjab and sought an appointment with Gandhi.
Apart from reviewing the security arrangements in the national capital, the Delhi Police have also strengthened the security in and around the Red Fort ahead of the Independence Day.
Police said acting on a specific information, Budgam Police along with the Army's 53 RR and 43 BN of the CRPF arrested one local terrorist linked with proscribed terror outfit LeT and recovered incriminating materials, arms and ammunition including one Chinese pistol, one magazine, eight live pistol rounds from his possession.
As the Pegasus spyware scandal unravelled within and outside Parliament, he termed it a "shocking assault" on India's democratic polity by the Union government, which had compromised the national security with "this blatantly disgraceful act".
