SIM card scam accused held while trying to flee to Dubai

A 25-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly his involvement in supplying over 500 SIM cards to cyber fraudsters

A 25-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly his involvement in supplying over 500 SIM cards to cyber fraudsters, Mangaluru CEN police said on Monday.

Inspector MP Sathish said that the accused, identified as Kanatala Vasudeva Reddy from Odisha, was arrested on Sunday for allegedly supplying over 500 SIM cards from various Indian telecom companies to people involved in cybercrimes (File photo)

Inspector MP Sathish said that the accused, identified as Kanatala Vasudeva Reddy from Odisha, was arrested on Sunday for allegedly supplying over 500 SIM cards from various Indian telecom companies to people involved in cybercrimes.

He said: “The investigation, triggered by a cyber fraud case on June 19, revealed that Nadavulu Veeravenkata Satyanarayana Raju (32), an accomplice, had used fake links sent through WhatsApp to deceive victims into transferring large amounts of money. Over time, he defrauded people to the tune of ₹10,84,017. Satyanarayana Raju, who was arrested June 29, admitted during interrogation that he was involved in a SIM card scam.”

“After the case was registered on June 20, Raju went absconding and fled to Dubai. We issued a look out circular against him. He had later come back to India and when he was on his way to board a flight to Dubai against, on a tip-off, Delhi airport police arrested him on June 29 and handed him over to us,” he said.

The police seized over 300 SIM cards from Satyanarayana Raju and are working to identify further links to the criminal network operating in Dubai

The fraudsters, including Satyanarayana Raju, had been using SIM cards issued in places like Visakhapatnam and Godavari districts. “These cards were obtained in the names of different individuals and supplied to a company in Dubai named Vinsect, which is reportedly based in China. The company ran a call centre in Dubai, where fraudsters convinced victims to invest money in stock markets as part of the scam,” the officer said.

Following Satyanarayana Raju’s confession, the police issued a lookout notice for Kanatala Vasudeva Reddy, who was arrested at Delhi airport while attempting to board a flight to Dubai. Immigration officials detained him, and further investigations are underway to apprehend the remaining suspects.

Authorities have frozen the bank account that received the fraudulent transfers and are continuing to trace the network involved in the scam. Muthu Shiva (29), another accomplice, was arrested on July 4 in connection with the case. The investigation is ongoing to uncover more details.