Ahmedabad: The Cyber Crime Cell of Ahmedabad Police has arrested three individuals for allegedly using customer data to issue duplicate sim cards and later sending those sim cards to Dubai, reportedly for illicit activities.

The fraud came to light on March 27 this year when a superintendent customs officer at the Shahibaug post office intercepted a suspicious parcel from Vadodara that was destined for Dubai. Upon inspection, the parcel was found to contain 55 cloned sim cards, prompting cyber-crime police to register a case the following day.

Investigations revealed that the suspects Rahul Shah, a 32-year-old from Danteshwar, Vadodara; Kanti Baldaniya, a 30-year-old from Ankleshwar; and Ajay Bhaliya, a 33-year-old from Vadodara — had devised a fraudulent scheme in February. They exploited both digital and offline methods to issue fake sim cards in customers’ names. Shah used biometric authentication and Aadhaar card details for the digital process, and for the offline process, he uploaded a photo of the customer along with their Aadhaar card. Shah explained that for each transaction, he provided one sim card to the customer and kept the second one for himself.

In total, Shah collected 55 sim cards, which he sold to Baldaniya for Rs 300 each. Baldaniya then sold them to Bhaliya for Rs 350 each. Bhaliya subsequently sent the sim cards to the Dubai address via Speed Post, using Rathod’s name, who was his friend. The sim cards were allegedly used for online gaming scams and other fraudulent activities.

Legal action has been initiated under Sections 406, 120(B), 511 of the IPC and Section 66(C) of the IT Act. DeshGujarat