Three arrested in Coimbatore for issuing more than 500 SIM cards by using other people's identity proofs

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore city cybercrime police and the rural cybercrime police arrested three men in two separate cases for issuing more than 500 SIM cards by using other people's photo identities and address proofs.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which comes under the ministry of communications, has developed a software- Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition Powered Solution for Telecom SIM Subscriber Verification (ASTR). The software has the capacity of running checks on subscriber databases of mobile operators to detect whether it contains multiple connections associated with the same person.
By using the software, the DoT came to know that around 40 lakh mobile phone connections were associated with a section of people in the country. In Tamil Nadu state alone, around 55,000 SIM cards were issued to various people by using a few people’s photo identities and address proofs. The DoT requested the police department to take action against the people who activated the SIM cards by using other people’s identity proofs.
The Coimbatore city cybercrime police arrested S Senthilkumar, 42, of Machampalayam near Sundarapuram on Wednesday for issuing 254 SIM cards to various people by using 185 identity proofs of others. Police said Senthilkumar was working as a field sales executive of AG Traders who was the distributor of a private mobile operator. Senthilkumar sold SIM cards to various people without getting any valid proof and misused other people’s identity and address proofs for the sold SIM cards. He was booked under sections 417, 465, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code and 66 (C), (D) of the Information Technology Act. He was produced before the judicial magistrate court-IV and later, he was remanded in judicial custody.
The Coimbatore rural cybercrime police arrested N Ramkumar, 37 of Thenkumarapalayam in Pollachi and S Ramasubramanian, 41, from Kumaran Nagar at Pollachi for issuing 290 SIM cards by using four people’s identity proofs in the last few months. They were owners of Rana communications in Pollachi and issued 290 SIM cards to various people without any valid proofs and they misused the photographs and identity proofs of four people for the 290 SIM cards. The duo were facing severe loss in the business and closed their office. They were working in the credit card section of a private bank.
The police arrested them and remanded them in judicial custody.