A complaint by Rajouri Garden MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa, alleging that he received threat calls from “terrorist outfits”, has led police to uncover a racket wherein an authorised distributor sold at least 150 SIM cards after forging identification documents.
According to Delhi Police Special Cell, the SIM card distributor procured the cards from a telecom company, and then sold them in bulk to a “telecall centre”, after filling false details in the customer acquisition form (CAF).
Sirsa had flagged the threat calls to police earlier this year. “Two separate complaints were filed in two months by Sirsa. In the complaints to Deputy Commissioner of Police (west) Vijay Kumar, Sirsa said he was attending the assembly session when he got repeated calls. When he returned the call, he was threatened with dire consequences by an unknown caller,” an officer said.
Subsequently, both cases were transferred to the southwestern range of the Special Cell, and a police team started working under Assistant Commissioner of Police Akhilesh Yadav’s supervision.
“Police started scanning the call detail records and came to know that the number belonged to a resident of Kurukshetra. He told police that his name and address mentioned in the CAF were correct, but the photograph and voter ID card used were not his. He also said he had never signed such a document,” an officer said.
He further claimed his ID documents had been forged.
“Police found that the number was activated on August 20 — 10 days before Sirsa first received the threatening calls. Police also found that 4,000 people were contacted via the number. Police said the SIM cards had been procured by a Shahdara-based distributor, who had taken the franchise of a leading telecom company in his wife’s name,” the police officer said.
“The distributor sold around 150 SIM cards, including the number Sirsa got a call from, and the CAF was filled and fraudulently signed by one of his office staff,” the officer said.
A senior Special Cell officer confirmed that a case has been registered under sections 463 (forgery), 471 (using genuine as forged), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code.