Police said that 500 SIM cards have been seized (Representational)
Four people have been arrested here for allegedly sending activated SIM cards to Vietnam to be used for gaming and social media applications and they received payments on a cryptocurrency platform banned in India, police said on Sunday.
They used to get the SIM cards issued in the names of people, many of them daily wage labourers, by paying them a "very small amount of money", Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani said.
The cards were then sold to people in Vietnam at a "high price" and these were "further used for gaming and social media applications", the official said.
The accused used to receive money on "Chinese cryptocurrency application", which was recently banned in India, police said and added that 500 SIM cards have been seized.
The deputy commissioner of police (DCP) said probe was initiated following a complaint from the manager (operations) of a courier company at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Cargo Terminal.
The complainant stated that "during a physical check of random shipments, it was discovered that one shipment contained a concealed bulk quantity of SIM cards covered in carbon paper inside a diary, kept after making a hollow space by cutting pages, intended for shipping to Vietnam", Mr Rangnani said.
The DCP said that a total of 500 SIM cards, of three different service provides, were found in that shipment. During investigation, 60 SIM cards from the 500 were randomly picked up, and police got the details of these from the respective service providers, the officer said.
"It was found that almost all the SIM cards were issued in the names of people living in and around the area of Agra (in Uttar Pradesh). All the SIM cards were issued by POS (point of sale) centres," the DCP said.
Mr Rangnani said Anil Kumar (20), a native of Rajasthan, and Mukul Kumar (22), Hemant (26) and Kanhaiya Gupta (29), residents of Agra, have been arrested. During probe, police tracked two people in Agra's Loha Mandi area in whose names SIM cards were issued. They revealed that Mukul Kumar had given them Rs 200 each to have the cards issued in their names, the DCP said. Mukul Kumar used get the SIM cards issued by telling people that he was doing this to help his friends at POS centres meet their monthly targets, Mr Rangnani said. The DCP said after getting cards issued, Mukul Kumar used to sell these to Hemant and Gupta at Rs 300 a piece. The two further sold to Anil Kumar at Rs 500 a piece, the officer said. It was Anil Kumar who used to ship SIM cards to addresses in Vietnam, which he got through social media platforms, the DCP said.
He is used to get paid by buyers on the Chinese cryptocurrency application and the share of each of the accused was given through the application, police said. The DCP said that Anil Kumar used to get Rs 1,300 a SIM card in his bank account through the cryptocurrency application from Vietnam. "We have started further investigation into the matter," the officer said.
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