Drive against East Delhi shops selling SIM cards sans proper

Alarmed by the fact that accused in the kidnapping-cum-murder case of 13-year-old Utkarsh here had used pre-activated SIM cards issued on fake documents, police has launched a drive in East Delhi to identify shops where SIM cards are sold without proper verification.
The two accused of the case Pratap and Siddharth had procured five pre-activated SIM cards from Krishna Nagar area. They had used the numbers to make ransom calls to Utkarsh's father.
Son of a jeweller, Utkarsh was kidnapped and murdered near his residence in Gandhi Nagar area. His body was found on November 18.
Police investigation had suffered due to the fact that the extortion calls were made from SIM cards brought on fake identity cards which were not verified by the mobile operator company.

Following the tragic incident, the East district police in collaboration with the Vigilance Unit have launched the drive to identify such shops in the area where pre-activated SIM cards are being sold without proper verification.
"We have launched a drive and police officers are being sent as decoy customers to identify such dealers. Although we have not come across any such dealer so far, the drive will continue for some more days," said a police officer.

In Utkarsh's case, the accused had bought SIM cards from a shop on November 17, a day before Utkarsh's kidnapping. The owner of the shop had activated two of the SIM cards on September 21 itself.

According to the guidelines issued by the Directorate of Telecommunications, a pre-activated SIM cards should not be sold. Also the verification has to be done telephonically as well to match the details of the identify proofs submitted by the customer.
The mobile service provider in this case is equally liable for this and will have to pay a fine of around Rs 50,000, according to the rules.
"We have registered a case under sections of forgery, using as genuine a forged document and cheating under the Indian Penal Code. Further investigations are underway," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Ajay Kumar.