Varanasi: Busting a SIM box network allegedly used to facilitate cyber fraud , including digital arrest, police arrested two persons during raids at three rented premises in the city on Wednesday.
Police seized six SIM boxes with a combined capacity of 192 SIM slots, along with routers, VPN gateways and other equipment allegedly used to operate the network. The arrested accused were identified as Mohammad Abid (40) of Sarai Harha in Chowk and Shashi Shekhar Singh (24) of Navapura in Daranagar. DCP Cyber Neetu Kadyan said police were examining suspicious phone numbers through the Pratibimb portal, when they identified a mule bank account linked to 41 cybercrime complaints from across the country. The account had allegedly received Rs 25 lakh cheated from a woman in Pune through a digital arrest scam . A case has been registered at Chitaipur police station under Sections 318(4) and 319(2) of BNS and Section 66D of Information Technology Act.
The gang allegedly used SIM-over-IP technology to route international calls through internet-based systems and make them appear as calls from Indian local numbers, helping the fraudsters deceive victims, according to police. On the direction of police commissioner Mohit Agarwal , a joint team of the cyber crime cell, surveillance team and Chitaipur police conducted raids at Ashokpuram Ekta Nagar in Shivpur, Balaji Bhawan in Samneghat under Lanka police station, and Kailashpuri Colony in Chitaipur. The alleged mastermind, Saugat Asthana of Lucknow, is absconding. Further legal proceedings are underway.