Srinagar: State Investigation Agency (SIA) of J&K Police on Tuesday booked a SIM card vendor in Kupwara district of north Kashmir for fraudulent sale of SIM cards.
In a statement a spokesman of SIA said that in the face of ever increasing misuse of SIM cards by terrorists, their OGW associates, narcotics smugglers and other criminals, SIA of J&K Police, today conducted searches at two locations in Kupwara district in connection with case FIR No. 14/2022 U/s 13 UA(P) Act, 120-B, 420,468,471 IPC of Police Station SIA/CIK, Srinagar.
The statement further stated that the two premises belonged to Javid Ahmad Bhat son of Ali Mohammad Bhat resident of Mohalla Gunwari Gugloosa, Kupwara, who is the proprietor of “Bhat Telecom” and has sold SIM cards in violation of department of Telecom regulations and in a manner that amounts to forgery and cheating.
“The basic allegation that has triggered the criminal investigation is that the proprietor of “Bhat Telecom” as a part of criminal conspiracy hatched with OGWs, sympathizers of terrorist organizations, and narcotic smugglers are involved in preparing and selling of SIM cards of various telecom companies by using fraudulent and dishonest methods. Prima facie evidence has become available to show that forging of records has taken place wherein photos of a single person have been used to prepare multiple SIM cards with different names and identities,” the spokesman said.
He said that investigation have been initiated to find out who all have used these fraudulently prepared SIM cards and how many of them have been used by terrorists, their associates, drug smugglers, arms and ammunition smugglers and also those who have been dealing with terror funding especially dumping the proceeds of sale of narcotics in different bank accounts.
During searches conducted today, incriminating materials such as digital devices, SIM cards, SD cards, Compact disks, bank transaction slips and documents having a bearing on the investigation have been recovered and seized, he said.
