Malappuram district police chief S. Sasidharan informed in a press conference that Abdul Roshan (46) was arrested from Madikeri in Karnataka. Roshan is an alleged mastermind in several ‘online frauds’ inside and outside Bharat.

The media has built a narrative that Roshan, a native of Periyapatna taluk, was arrested for organizing and providing SIM cards to fraudsters who extorted money. Why are they so afraid to call out the truth that the accused could have used forged SIM cards to carry out terrorist activities?

Roshan is a private mobile company distributor in Madikeri, a hill town in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. 40000 SIM cards, 150 mobile phones, and six biometric scanners were found in his possession. It is reported that Roshan has looted lakhs of rupees.

According to the police, the accused provided SIM cards to a gang of investment scamsters. The Madikeri police have also registered a fraud case against him.

The police have seized 1500 activated SIM cards and 2000 that can be activated. It is reported that Roshan gave the SIM cards to the investment fraud group for Rs 50 per SIM. Chinese phones that can conceal International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers by inserting these SIM cards have also been seized.

It is claimed that it all began when a Vengara resident youth in Malappuram district became a victim of online fraud. The ‘victim’ browsed a Facebook page and clicked on a share market trading link.

A woman’s profile picture was posted on WhatsApp, pretending to be the site’s customer care and gave trading details. The complainant was forced to deposit one crore and eight lakh rupees in various bank accounts and was assured of huge profits. The case is that the complainant was cheated and lost the money.

Using advanced technology, the cybercrime squad conducted an investigation and got a clue about the accused, who was organizing and providing the SIM cards. Acting on the tip-off, the team searched various places in Karnataka.

Information was received that the accused was staying in a rented house at Madikeri in Kodagu district. Based on this, the Kerala police, with help from the Karnataka Police, took the accused into custody. Police confiscated the SIM cards and electronic devices.

The SIM card used by the accused belongs to a lady. It is claimed that the young woman did not know that such a mobile number was active in her name. The accused used this SIM card for the crime without her knowledge or consent.

It was concluded that more than 40000 forged SIM cards were activated without the customers’ knowledge and may have been used for various purposes. Roshan was questioned about how he activated such a large quantity of SIMs.

Fraud was committed by pressing the biometric fingerprint two or three times without the customer’s knowledge when they arrived at retail shops to collect a SIM card.

Shop staff who were Roshan’s accomplices sold activated SIM cards at Rs 50 per card. (A new SIM card costs Rs 50 everywhere) In other words, mobile shop workers and owners who were part of Roshan’s network collected customers’ biometrics and used them to activate SIM cards without their knowledge.

For this, the accused obtained the Point Of Sale (POS) applications of various mobile companies in the name of multiple persons under fake names. Also, the accused obtained such fraudulently activated SIM cards from multiple retail shops through couriers.

Roshan sold such activated SIM cards to unknown persons. The accused also shared one-time passwords (OTPs) with fraudsters to open fake social media and E-commerce accounts. It remains unclear whether such SIM cards reached terrorists, smugglers, and separatists living undercover in Bharat.

On instructions from the District Police Chief, Malappuram Cyber Nodal Officer DCRB (District Crime Record Bureau) DySP Shaju Vargheese and cybercrime experts at the Cyber Police Station have caught the accused and are investigating further.

Roshan was produced and remanded by the Malappuram court. The cyber police inspector said the accused would be taken into custody for further questioning to determine whether the accused had used such SIM cards for other offences.

The police have reportedly received information about the other accused in the gang. Who are the mobile shop owners who helped Roshan? How safe is the average citizen’s biometrics?