The detective branch (DB) of police yesterday seized about 100,000 SIMs (Subscriber Identity Module) including 5,000 illegally registered ones, which were being sold in the market, and arrested seven people over the incident from Reazuddin Bazar area of Chittagong city.
The identities of the arrestees could not be confirmed by police till of filing the report yesterday evening. The DB team conducted the drive at CDA market in Amtali of Reazuddin Bazar area.
About 5,000 of the seized SIMs, issued by various mobile operators, were registered illegally using National Identity Card information of different people without their knowledge. As criminals may use these SIMs to commit crimes, the SIM cards were seized, said DB police.
The shops which were found selling the SIMs were sealed off. “We are investigating if anyone from the mobile company is linked with this crime,” said Md Maruf Hossain, deputy police commissioner (port) of DB of Chittagong Metropolitan Police.Earlier, on June 29, police seized around one lakh illegal SIM cards from the capital of mobile operator Airtel with false biometric. Police had also arrested 22 people including 3 territorial distribution managers of Airtel in this connection.