Police Verification Must for Sim Cards Dealers: Vaishnaw

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday announced a strictest action to curb fraudulent activities on SIM cards across the country and made police verification of all SIM card dealers mandatory. Further, it also discontinued the provision of bulk connections to check fraudulent activities as well.

“The police verification of SIM card dealers has been made mandatory and discontinued the provision of bulk connections to curb fraudulent activities. The government has disconnected 52 lakh mobile connections, while 67,000 dealers have been blacklisted and 300 FIRs have been filed against SIM card dealers since May 2023,” Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

The minister also said that WhatsApp platform on its own blocked around 66,000 accounts that were involved in fraudulent activities. “Now we have made police verification of SIM dealers mandatory to curb frauds. Penalty of Rs 10 lakh will be imposed on dealers found violating norms,” Vaishnaw added.

As per the minister, there are 10 lakh SIM dealers and they will be given sufficient time for police verification. “The Department of Telecommunications has also discontinued the provision of bulk connections and instead a new concept of business connection will be introduced. Besides, KYC of businesses, KYC of persons taking the handover of SIM will also be done,” Vaishnaw said.