The Thane police have busted a racket in which SIM cards are activated using forged documents and sold to those who did not have requisite documents.
According to police officials, the racket is being run for six months in Bhiwandi, where hundreds of labourers migrate every year, and the accused had made these labourers their consumer base.
Over the last two weeks, the police have arrested five accused, including two Activation Officers with a cellular service provider, and one more is still wanted.
“The accused would trawl social networking websites, pick names and download display images which they would use to create forged identity papers like Aadhaar cards. Each document would have a random person’s name, someone else’s photograph and a fictitious address. These documents would then be given to the Activation Officers, who would enter them in the company records and give SIM cards to the accused in return,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Thane Crime Branch, Parag Manere.
