Sim box fraud gang with international links busted, 3 arrested

Patna: The cyber wing of Bihar’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU), in collaboration with Department of Telecommunications (DoT), has busted a cybercrime network with international links, involved in nationwide frauds like digital arrests using illegal sim boxes.

A Point of Sale (POS) operator and two gang members were arrested on Saturday, Sunday and Monday during raids conducted at Dhatta village (Samastipur district), Baisi (Purnia) and Varanasi in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.The crackdown has exposed a sophisticated fraud network with interstate and international connections, including links to Cambodia and Thailand.The sim boxes are advanced devices used by cybercriminals to convert international VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls into local calls, enabling scams like digital arrests and investment frauds.

These illegal set-ups also cause substantial revenue losses for telecom companies.The EOU’s ongoing campaign against SIM boxes led to the recovery of multiple devices, fake sim cards, routers and other equipment from Supaul, Bhojpur, Samastipur, Purnia and Varanasi. Investigations revealed that over 4,000 fraudulent calls were made daily through these set-ups, with an estimated 1.2 lakh calls per month.Acting on intelligence, a Special Investigation Team led by the EOU’s superintendent of police (cyber) raided the locations.

Manavjeet Singh Dhillon, deputy inspector general (DIG) of EOU, said POS operator Chandrabali Singh, who was arrested from Mehroompur in Varanasi on Saturday, revealed that alleged mastermind Anjani Kumar Swatantrata operated the sim box racket across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. “Singh first installed the sim box set-up at his home in Samastipur, then moved it to Varanasi due to network issues. He was provided a SIM box by one Sahjad on the instruction of Swatantra, also a resident of Samastipur.

Two gang members, Munna Kumar and Kashif Mahfooz Sheikh, were arrested from Varanasi on Sunday and Monday respectively. Anjani remains absconding, with a prior SIM box-related case against him in Siliguri, West Bengal, in 2024. He came out on bail from jail this year,” the DIG told this newspaper.The investigation uncovered a sim card supply network involving POS operators and distributors in Samastipur, who provided fake sim cards for Rs 1,000 each. Financial details of the accused are being scrutinised with the Financial Intelligence Unit to track suspicious transactions. The EOU is also probing other suspects and their links to the cybercrime bases in multiple states and countries.So far, five cybercrime complaints related to sim-box fraud have been filed on the NCRP portal.The EOU has urged citizens to stay vigilant and report suspicious activities, such as offers to install devices like sim boxes.