Drive against illegal SIM cards
SHILLONG: In the wake of the thriving business of illegal sale of SIM cards in the black market, Meghalaya Police have decided to investigate the role of SIM card dealers in the State in the matter.
Inspector General of Police (Operations), GHP Raju on Saturday said that the service providers provide serial number to dealers while issuing SIM cards and dealers, usually through foul play, issue ‘black SIM cards’ to unverified customers.
However, the State police would now ask the service providers to give the name and address of the dealers and Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Cells of Department of Telecom would help the cops in the investigation.
“Based on our findings we will take action against the dealers,” he said.
It may be mentioned that Meghalaya Police has conducted raids in several places of the State leading to seizure of many illegal SIM cards.
It has been learnt that such SIM cards usually originate from Dimapur and Kohima as well as from parts of Imphal and Tripura.
According to Raju, the dealers usually use the documents of genuine customers to activate SIM cards and then sell it in black market. He also said that militants use these SIM cards for extortion and other illegal activities.
Raju also said that as per the directive of the Department of Telecom, a penalty of up to of Rs 50000 can be imposed on a service provider selling SIM cards illegally. The Police are mainly focusing on Garo Hills at the moment, Raju said adding that the use of black sim cards is more or less nil in Shillong.
Reacting to a query, he said that the customers who use black sim cards are also culprits and action will be taken against them.