Vijayawada Police Bust Gang Selling Mule SIM Cards

 Vijayawada: The Vijayawada Cyber Crime Police busted a seven-member gang supplying mule SIM Cards to cyber criminals in Visakhapatnam and seized 998 SIM cards, Biometric Machine, and cell phones from their possession.

The arrested have been identified as Repaka Ramji (28), Nambala Nithin (30), Telu Pranay Kumar (21), Nanda Rupesh (20), Kagithala Simhadri (21), Pandiri Satynarayana (22) and Bandi Narayana Murthy (29), all belonging to Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts.

Investigating into a complaint lodged by a senior citizen who was cheated by a cyber fraudster of Rs.30.37 lakh, the cybercrime police said the accused approached the victim through a Whatsapp video call on May 24 where the accused introduced himself as the Mumbai Cyber Crime DCP and said the victim had two SIM cards and two bank accounts in Mumbai, which were used for illegal activities.

The police said Raj Kundra, who is accused in many cases in Mumbai, is constantly talking on the phone, and said the accused is depositing the fraudulent amount in the accounts of the complainant. A case has been registered against the complainant in Mumbai on this matter, a fake FIR, arrest warrant and fake documents were sent to the complainant through Whatsapp.

Fearing the cyber fraudster’s threats and as per the instructions, the victim paid Rs. 30,37,000 in two installments in the accused’s account. The victim realized that he had been cheated as the criminals called the complainant and demanded more money, and complained to the Vijayawada Cyber Crime Police Station.

A cyber crime police team found that the SIM cards used by the accused were taken from Visakhapatnam and the cyber crime police team led by Murthi reached Visakhapatnam and found interesting things.

During the investigation, the police found that executives who sell SIM cards collect Aadhaar card and thumb impressions of users. After the users take the SIM card and leave, another SIM card is created, activated and sold to anti-social forces for huge sums of money.

The police withheld Rs1.21 crore in the bank account to which the victim transferred the amount and they further contacted the bank officials and made arrangements to return Rs.30.37 lakh to the victim.

The police found a whopping Rs6.02 crore was deposited into the same bank account through various cyber crime transactions which were immediately transferred to various other bank accounts.

NTR District Commissioner of Police (CP) P.H.D. Rama Krishna said it has been found the criminals seem to be committing these crimes from Cambodia and that the accused will be arrested following a thorough investigation.