Chandigarh, May 25 (IANS) To curb the menace of issuing SIM cards on fake identities, a major security threat, the Punjab Police have got blocked over 1.8 lakh SIM cards activated using fake identities and forged documents, Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said on Thursday.
In one case 500 SIM cards have been issued with the same photograph but in different names by forging documents.
The Internal Security Wing in association with the Department of Telecom had begun a crackdown against distributors and agents selling SIM cards on fake identities.
Yadav said: "Action is being initiated against point of sales distributors, agents and other persons involved in issuing SIM cards on fake IDs."
The police have arrested 17 people, who were found involved in the sale of SIM cards on fake documents, besides registering 52 FIRs in the last three days.
Special DGP (Internal Security) R.N. Dhoke said that he had held multiple meetings with the Department of Telecom and telecom service providers. Subsequent to that action was taken.
He said Inspector General of Police (Counter Intelligence) Rakesh Agrawal has been made the nodal officer and a drive is on to further identify the SIM cards issued on fake IDs.
The special DGP also warned retailers of strict action for failing to comply with the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms, a lapse that resulted in the activation of thousands of SIM cards fraudulently.
"Special teams of the Counter Intelligence Wing have been coordinating with the district police to zero in on SIM card retailers, who activated different mobile phone numbers with the same proof of identity," he said, adding that they are also taking up the matter with the telecom authorities to blacklist such agents.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to the US on June 22, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be visiting the country for a week at the end of this month during which he will attend several programmes. According to party sources, Rahul Gandhi is slated leave for the US on May 30 or 31 and will visit California, Washington and New York.
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Tuesday arrested Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon, the former MLA from Faridkot, for possession of assets disproportionate to known sources of income. A spokesperson for the bureau said a corruption case has been registered him along with Gursewak Singh and Rajwinder Singh.
The CBI has alleged in its FIR filed against former Mumbai Zone Narcotics Control Bureau head Sameer Wankhede in the Aryan Khan drug seizure case, that the latter concealed information regarding his foreign trips and buying expensive watches. The FIR has been accessed by IANS in which the CBI has made shocking allegations.
A passenger was arrested at the Amritsar airport for allegedly molesting an air hostess on board a flight from Dubai in an inebriated state, police said on Monday. Rajinder Singh, who belongs to Kotli village in Jalandhar, got into a heated argument with the air hostess and allegedly molested her, the police said.
A local court in Punjab's Sangrur has issued a notice to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in a Rs 100-crore defamation case filed against him for "objectionable" remarks against the Bajrang Dal. The court of civil judge (senior division) Ramandeep Kaur has summoned Kharge on July 10.
As per the new tariffs, which will come into effect from May 16, the charges for those having a load of up to 2 KW have been revised to Rs 4.19 per unit for the first 100 units (an increase of 70 paise per unit), Rs 6.64 per unit for 101 to 300 units (an increase of 80 paise per unit), and Rs 7.75 per unit for above 300 units (an increase of 45 paise per unit).
