Illegal SIM cards being misused by terrorists?

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Walk up to a telecom reseller. With just few bucks, one can have a SIM card of any telecom service provider. And terror-prone national capital Delhi is no exception. Identity is no big obstacle.

Taking cue from apparent security risks and recent illegal SIM cards hauls, the telcos have albeit started physical verification. But isn't this a belated move? Is this third-party process be relied upon?

With absence of mechanism to verify existing subscribers or curb this menace, the security agencies are no longer mute spectators.

The Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) earlier this month has put the industry in jitters. When the anti terror body sought reply from the top executives of three service operators, as a part of investigation in 2011, it was revealed that SIM cards were procured by a terror group.

Speaking to CIOL, senior Supreme Court attorney and a noted techno-legal expert Praveen Dalal believes that obtaining SIM cards on forged documents is difficult to prevent. "Pre-activated SIM cards and unaccounted SIM cards are definitely prone to misuse and can be used for engaging in anti-national activities," he said.

The telecom companies, Dalal said, cannot ensure that each and every SIM card that has been sold is verified for its legality and attributable to a valid subscriber. "There must be a system that can track the misuse of such SIM cards," he added.

Dalal believes that verification of a subscriber to obtain a new SIM card is by and large satisfactory in India. "We cannot rule out and absolutely avoid incidences and cases where SIM cards are issued without following proper guidelines and norms," he added.

Some of the Illegal SIM card rackets that were busted are as follows:

August 2010

The Mysore city police unearthed a racket in which fake documents were used for issuing SIM cards of a Gurgaon-based mobile service provider. Several pre-activated cards were recovered

September 2011

Gujarat Police busted a statewide illegal SIM card racket and arrested a telecom sub dealer. Police seized more than 500 bogus documents, several activated SIM cards, genuine documents of subscribers which were used to create fake ones and Rs 25,000 in cash.

September 2011

Maharashtra special squad busted SIM cards racket. Two persons were arrested with 3,826 such cards, which were procured by producing fake documents.

January 2012

Mumbai Crime Branch nabbed a 24-year-old-man with 4,931 SIM cards in possession that were procured using false and forged documents. The accused made fortunes worth Rs 4 lakh through this racket.

March 2012

Ahmadabad Police arrested shopkeeper who employed three collegians to sell illegal SIM cards. The three students under 20 were also arrested with 100 unauthorized SIM cards.