Rajkot: Five more individuals, including a pharmacy graduate running online coaching classes and his engineer friend, were arrested in a racket involving the sale of pre-activated SIM cards to cybercriminals and online fraud through fake religious websites.
The arrests were made by the Devbhumi Dwarka’s cyber crime unit, which identified the accused as Monark Patel (24), Dhansingh Gurjar (26), Rashid Mev (24), Neeraj Dwivedi (35), and Kaushlendra Varma (32).
Dwivedi, who ran online coaching classes with his BTech-graduate friend Varma, was discovered to be involved in creating fake websites used in the scam.
The investigation revealed that at least 600 SIM cards were sent from Vadodara to cybercriminals. With this latest arrest, the total number of individuals apprehended in the racket reaches 10, while the mastermind, identified as Nafis, remains at large.
Authorities suspect Nafis recruited new members even after the initial arrests, allowing the operation to continue.
The cybercrime unit began investigating after observing similar modus operandi in cybercrimes even after the initial arrests in December. In December, Altaf Sheikh, Hassan Sheikh, and Arifbaig Mirza were arrested for supplying pre-activated SIM cards to Rajasthan-based cybercriminals.
Monark Patel, their friend, was identified through their contact details. Patel, who has only completed up to class 9 education, had been selling SIM cards from various operators for the past year. He came in contact with Dhansingh Gurjar, who began purchasing these cards from Patel for Rs 400 each and then selling them to cybercriminals.
The investigation revealed that the group led by Altaf Sheikh, Hassan Sheikh, Arifbaig Mirza, and Monark Patel had sent a total of 600 SIM cards to the Rajasthan cybercriminal gang over the past two years.
“Dwivedi and Varma have created 50 fake websites so far, many of them mimicking Gujarat’s popular tourist destinations like Dwarka and Somnath,” said Ashraf Khan Baloch, police inspector of the cyber crime unit. “The investigation is still ongoing.”
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