Photo for representation
Bengaluru: Probe into the illegal sim box network operating in Bengaluru has widened across states, with Whitefield cybercrime police detecting two more sim farm sites in Tamil Nadu ’s Tiruchirappalli and Thanjavur districts and seizing 10 e-sim enabled box devices. Following the seizures, Maske Bapurav Ramrao alias Niranjan Maske (20) and Yesh Patil (21) were arrested, while two 17-year-old juveniles detained. All four belong to Gondia district, Maharashtra. Police analysed the equipment, telecommunications records and digital evidence to determine whether the network’s operations were confined to Bengaluru or extended to other locations. The leads pointed to Tiruchirappalli and Thanjavur, where the equipment was used for making cybercrime fraud calls.
The breakthrough came during further investigation into an illegal sim box network which was busted at Kadugodi and Pattandur Agrahara and 10 devices were seized. Investigation is now focused on tracing the entire operational chain across the country, including procurement and deployment of sim box and farm devices, use of cards and e-sIM profiles, telecommunications infrastructure involved, and individuals who facilitated or controlled the operations.