Cuttack: In a major crackdown, a team of cyber police bust a pre-activated SIM card racket in Cuttack, today. Police have arrested eight persons including seven telecom staff in this connection.

The telecom employees are Babuna Das, Rakesh Kumar Nayak, Biswajeet Sarangi, Biswajeet Pradhan, Mahabir Das, Jyotiranjan Sahoo and Soumya Ranjan Khandayat. However, the identity of the other arrested person has not been known yet.

The inter-state racket was supplying SIM cards from Puri to different places outside the State such as New Delhi, Assam, Rajasthan and Western UP for the last five months. With an intention to meet the sales target and also to earn easy money within a short span of time, the racket was indulging in this illegal activity, divulging on the racket's modus operandi Cuttack DCP Pinak Mishra said.

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“The racket sold over 5,000 pre-activated SIM cards to different agents. During the probe, it was ascertained that each member earned around Rs 3 lakh. We initiated a detailed investigation after it was known that two SIMs, which used to commit cyber crimes, were activated from Odisha,” the DCP stated.

Cyber Police have seized 800 SIMs and 16 mobile phones from the possession of the racket.

Jyotiranjan, the key accused in the case, earlier got training from a person in Assam on how to pre-activate SIM cards. Subsequently, he camped in a farmland in his village and carried out the illegal trade.

“More persons involved in the crime will be arrested soon,” DCP Mishra expressed.