By Rajnish Singh

New Delhi [India], June 8 (ANl): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has identified 36,000 active Indian SIM cards operating from Cambodia, with nearly 5,300 linked to cyber fraud cases involving hundreds of crores rupees across India.

The major cyber fraud was unearthed after the ED initiated an investigation on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) registered by Cyber Police Station DCP (Crime), Jodhpur, against the certain Point of Sale (POS) vendors regarding misuse of SIM cards by them.

The probe revealed that Indian mobile numbers were fraudulently activated by the POS vendors and supplied to the Malaysian nationals, who subsequently operated them from Cambodia for committing cyber frauds in India.

As per the ED investigation, 'Thousands of Indian mobile numbers were fraudulently activated in India by the SIM vendors, which were used from Cambodia for committing cyber fraud at various states of India by making WhatsApp calls.'

'Analysis of around 2.3 lakh numbers showed that about 36,000 SIM cards were active in Cambodia, out of which nearly 5,300 were involved in committing cyber fraud cases across India to the tune of hundreds of crores,' said the federal agency in a statement.

ED said several vendors targeted the less educated and gullible persons from various states across India, on the pretext of porting their SIM cards or issuance of new SIMs.

However, while activating the SIMs, the accused-- identified as Rahul Kumar Jha, Mohammad Sharif and Sandeep Bhatt in connivance with the other SIM vendors, namely Prakash Bheel, Ramavatar Rathi, Hareesh Malakar and Hemant Panwar-- also additionally activated other SIMs which were subsequently supplied to Malaysian Nationals in lieu of commission on each SIM.

One Rahul Kumar Jha and his associates played a key role in the supply of these SIM cards to Malaysian nationals, said the ED.

ED further said, 'The SIM vendors have POS ID of the telecom operators, namely, Airtel, JIO, and VI for issuance and activation of SIM cards.'

In its ongoing case, ED's Jaipur zonal office on June 5 carried out searches at seven places in Kishangarh in Rajasthan's Ajmer as well as Jodhpur, Maharashtra's Nagpur, and Punjab's Ludhiana under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

In the search operation, ED identified 30 bank accounts and seized several incriminating documents as well as material, along with the revelation of various movable and immovable properties relating to the accused persons. (ANI)