Don’t be surprised if a policeman comes to your house and starts questioning you about a terror call made from a mobile phone with a SIM card issued in your name. There is a thriving, but illegal, business in the city in fake identity documents that are needed to purchase a SIM card. And it is a practice that can have deadly consequences.
DNA purchased some fake documents for Rs14 each from different shops in Shahibaugh and Relief Road areas.
SIM cards can be bought on the basis of these documents without having to go through the process of proper verification.
The documents are sold by a small circle of traders dealing in SIM cards for mobile phones. A set of fake documents can cost anywhere between Rs5 and Rs14.
“Every trader in the circle has a bank of such documents,” a trader said. “If a buyer doesn’t submit the necessary documents on time, we give some documents from our bank to the cellphone company.”
According to reports, many SIM card sellers issue the cards in bunches, to people involved in criminal activities such as bootlegging.
A shopkeeper told DNA on the condition of anonymity that they purchased these documents from the team leaders of the cellphone companies, as well as from SIM
card retailers.
“Usually, shopkeepers ask for two sets of photographs and photo IDs,” the retailer said. “We give one set to the cellphone company and keep the other with us. The second set of documents is again used to issue SIM cards to new customers.”
The city police recently arrested an employee of a multinational cellphone service provider for selling a SIM card without proper identity verification.
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