Bhubaneswar, Aug 20 : Following the busting of a SIM box racket in Odisha, the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police on Tuesday detected the racket's links in Jharkhand as well.





A team of Commissionerate Police with the help of Jharkhand Police on Tuesday recovered five more SIM boxes during a raid at Namkum in Ranchi of Jharkhand.



Earlier, the twin city police had seized 12 SIM boxes (seven from the Laxmisagar area of Bhubaneswar and five from the Madhupatna area of Cuttack city) during searches at the rental accommodations of accused Raju Mandal of West Bengal.



At the behest of mastermind Asadur Jaman of Bangladesh, Mandal was operating these SIM box networks from rental accommodations in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack in Odisha and Ranchi in Jharkhand.



On Tuesday, the Special Squad of Commissionerate Police along with Laxmisagar Police and accused Raju Mandal reached Ranchi.



'With active cooperation and support from Ranchi police, the team located the rented house of Haji Sohel Malik Maulana Azad Colony, Lane no 15, near Manan Chowk under Namkum Police station. Mandal had taken the house on rent with a monthly rent of Rs 7500. Mandal had set up the SIM boxes. He used to visit the place once a week to maintain electricity, and internet, and replace the inactive SIM cards,' said the police sources.



The mastermind of the racket Zaman had got the SIM boxes delivered in West Bengal to Mandal. Then Raju took the SIM boxes to Ranchi by train and set up the SIM boxes as per the direction of Asadur.



'Asadur used to send money through Hundi to Raju for the expenses. All the SIM cards are pre-activated AIRTEL sims from West Bengal. Asadur had procured the SIMs and got those delivered through code word to Raju,' added Police sources.



The Commissionerate Police through interrogation of accused Mandal has managed to fetch vital information regarding the international racket involved in the running of SIM box networks in Odisha and Jharkhand. The local court had earlier allowed the police to take the accused Mandal on a five-day remand for further investigation into the matter.



Notably, the Commissionerate Police busted the racket during a raid at the Jharpada area under Laxmisagar police limits in Bhubaneswar on Friday. Police seized seven SIM boxes and arrested the accused Mandal. Following the leads divulged by Mandal, the Police later conducted a raid at another rented house of Mandal at the Madhupatana area in Cuttack and seized five more SIM boxes on Sunday.



The investigating sleuths also found that the network was being operated at Bhubaneswar and Cuttack by one Asadur Zaman from Bangladesh since October 2023 while Mandal used to look after the maintenance of the SIM boxes, electricity etc.



/IANS