SHILLONG: With the High court of Meghalaya ordering mobile service providers to inform police of any case of pre-activated SIM being found operational in Garo Hills, the service providers are now on the job to create softwares to identify black SIM cards.
Meghalaya police sources, on the request of anonymity, said the mobile service providers are trying to come up with a technology where if any SIM card from other states gets activated in Garo Hills, the subscriber would get an alert from the company and he/she would be asked for some details and failure to comply with the formalities will lead to suspension of the SIM card. The sources said the service providers are trying to come up with the technology at the earliest so as to ensure that genuine subscribers are not put to any inconvenience.
The sources admitted that use of black SIM cards is a matter of concern for the State police since militants and criminal gangs use black SIM cards to execute all their nefarious activities such as extortion, kidnapping and other crimes.
The State police is also continuously engaging with the service providers to ensure that black SIM cards are stopped from being used by militants.
It is learnt that the number of SIM cards in operation in Garo Hills is around 3-4 lakhs.
In November last year, while taking due note of the submission made by police in connection with use of illegal SIM cards by militants and gangs to commit various crimes in Garo Hills and acting on the suggestion of IGP (Law and Order) G.H.P. Raju, the High Court of Meghalaya has issued an order that henceforth all mobile service providers – Aircel, Airtel, BSNL, Idea, Reliance & Vodafone – shall furnish information forthwith to the nearest police station if any SIM activated by them is located to be operational in any part of the five districts of Garo Hills region.
