Operation FAST: After Mule Accounts, MP's Sidhi Emerges As Hub Of Fake SIM Cards; SIMs Bought From Villagers Reach Neighbouring Countries

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Once a hub of mule accounts, the Sidhi district is emerging as the site for over 1,000 SIM cards bought and sold by cyber fraudsters, revealed the ongoing Operation FAST, said officials on Friday.

Operation FAST (Forged-Activated-SIM-Termination) of the MP Police is being carried out across the state jointly by the state police’s cyber cell and district police forces. In the case busted on Thursday, 44 persons have been arrested. 

Cyber SP Pranay Nagvanshi said to the Free Press that the districts of Sidhi, Chhatarpur, Datia, Dindori, and Shivpuri have emerged as the prime hotspots of such SIM Card Points of Sale (PoS), which are supplying fake SIM cards to cyber fraudsters.

While Sidhi logged the sale of over 1,000 dubious SIMs, each of the other four districts also had at least 100 such SIM cards issued by dubious PoS, he added. Some of these SIM cards travelled all the way to neighbouring countries.

In the past, there have been multiple cases of suspected hawala money, or funding for suspected terrorist and spying activities, or generated from cyber fraud, being parked in mule accounts of people living in various parts of MP’s Vindhya region, particularly Sidhi, Satna, Rewa, Maihar, Katni, and Umaria districts.

After the five districts mentioned earlier, Gwalior, Indore, Damoh, Morena, and Jabalpur districts form the second lot of fake SIM cards’ hotspot districts.

Terror connection

The police are also going to probe the terror funding angle as these SIMs may have been used by anti-national elements. They would look at the possible link between sellers and buyers connected to terror and hawala money.