Ahmedabad police bust SIM fraud racket tied to Dubai, Cambodia; 3 held

Ahmedabad: Cybercrime police on Monday arrested three men for fraudulently issuing SIM cards in the names of unsuspecting customers and supplying them to cyberfraud rackets operating from Dubai and Cambodia. The case surfaced after a complainant learnt that a SIM card issued in his name was used in a digital arrest scam reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal.

During inquiry, the complainant revealed that in March 2024, an agent at Chandlodia Talav had taken his Aadhaar and fingerprints to “transfer” his father’s SIM card. Claiming that the server had failed, the agent instead used the documents to activate a new SIM secretly, which was later used in cybercrime.

Investigation found that the gang targeted customers at small telecom counters, collected ID documents and biometrics, issued SIM cards without their knowledge, and circulated them through a chain of middlemen. The cards were sent first to Dubai and then to Cambodia, where call centres running digital arrest and similar scams used them to target Indians.

The arrested accused are Vijay Raval (32) from Chandlodia, Shubham Paradia (22) from Ranip, and Kiran Thakkar from Gota. Police said Raval earned ₹400 per SIM, Paradia resold them to Thakkar for ₹700 each, and Thakkar supplied them further for around ₹1,500 apiece for shipment abroad. DeshGujarat