VADODARA: The cybercrime sleuths have busted a racket of ‘exporting’ SIM cards to Dubai and arrested a man from Ahmedabad. The police said that the accused, identified as Ravindra Patel, used to procure SIM cards by using identity cards of different persons.

“Patel, who owns a shop in Ahmedabad, has been sending SIM cards to Dubai. Our investigations revealed that he sent over 50 SIM cards to Dubai and they were delivered to a man who is involved in scams,” said Hardik Makadia, ACP (cybercrime).

These SIM cards made their way to a woman of Pakistani origin in Dubai and she delivered them to a Chinese gang. “These are same Chinese gangs that place calls to unsuspecting citizens and offer investment plans for siphoning their money”.

The cybercrime sleuths got a whiff of Patel’s illegal activities when they were investigating a fraud complaint registered by Pratik Patel at the cybercrime police station. Pratik was duped of Rs 49 lakh by a gang that promised lucrative returns for online ratings of a website. “The victim was sent a message on Telegram by this gang. Our investigations led us to some SIM card numbers used in the scam. When we contacted the SIM card owner, he told us that Ravindra had acquired it by using his ID card,” Makadia said.

Ravindra used to contact his friends and acquaintances and request them to furnish their documents to buy SIM cards in their names. The accused used to convince them by stating that he wanted many cards to conduct his business.