Ahmedabad: The city crime branch on Thursday filed a complaint against three men for allegedly running a racket of fraudulently obtaining sim cards and bank accounts by paying money to poor people. These accounts and sim cards were used in illegal activities like online gambling, cricket betting, and con call centres.
Complainant D M Solanki of the city crime branch said in his FIR with the DCB police that the police got a tip-off that some people running their office in a commercial complex in Anandnagar were operating a racket of fraudulent use of sim cards and bank accounts.
A crime branch team raided the spot and found three men — Shoaib Shaikh, 33, a resident of Sarkhej, Sajid Sisodia, 31, a resident of Juhapura, and Vishal Gami, 23, a resident of Dholka of Ahmedabad district — at the office.
Six bank account kits, which included passbooks, ATM cards, and cheque books, 53 bank account application forms, 17 cellphones, and around 20 sim cards were found there, said a police official.
Gami was working as a peon and Shaikh was managing accounts. Sisodia was handling the office functioning, according to the FIR. The cops came to know that a man named Ayyub Ajmeri from Makarba was bringing the sim cards and bank accounts, which were used to be given to one Irfan from Mumbai, it added.
For each account, Sisodia used to get Rs 15,000, and the account holder Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000. Irfan would finally send these account details and sim cards linked with accounts to various foreign countries. These accounts were mainly used in online gambling and cricket betting.
DCB police registered a case under the Indian Penal Code along with charges of the Information Technology Act against Ajmeri, Sisodia, and Irfan and began an investigation.
