A Vodafone SIM card issued in Delhi was being used by operatives of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence to contact its agents in India. It was found active on India-Pakistan border, police said on Wednesday.
The SIM card was investigated in the backdrop of a espionage network in which five persons - including a serving and a former Indian Army personnel and a serving Border Security Force personnel - were arrested in the past one month for providing secret and confidential information to ISI.
Technical surveillance revealed that the SIM card was pre-activated on a fake ID and sold by a 28-year-old man living in outer Delhi’s Rohini Sector-5.
The accused has been identified as Ankush Khandelwal, who hails from Rajasthan’s Alwar district. He has a master’s degree in Political Science from University of Rajasthan. Police recovered 205 pre-activated SIM cards from Ankush.
“Such SIM cards pose a major threat to national security since used by criminals and persons involved in anti-national activities. One such SIM card issued in Delhi was tracked down in India-Pakistan border. It was issued on a fake ID,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.
The SIM card was used to contact a BSF constable and his cousin arrested in Jammu and Kashmir last month on charges of spying for ISI. Three other agents were nabbed in Kolkata.
A Delhi Police team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) KPS Malhotra was constituted to look into the matter. “We received inputs that a man named Ankush sells pre-activated SIM cards issued on fake or forged IDs,” Yadav added.
A raid was conducted and Ankush was apprehended with 205 pre-activated SIM cards, 28 customer identification forms (CAF), forged voter ID cards and five mobile phones.
On interrogation, it was found that Ankush was selling the SIM cards to buyers and retailers for Rs 500 each. “In this manner, customers had to pay Rs 500 to get pre-activated SIM cards without following the formality of filling up CAF or furnishing his ID,” Yadav said.
A case under Indian Penal Code has been registered with crime branch police station. Police have confirmed that ‘sensitive information’ related to deployment of Indian Army and Indian Air Force units in Jammu and Kashmir were shared over the SIM Card.
DH News Service