The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) arrested two wanted criminals, Sandeep Pandey (35) and Mohammed Naufeel (34), on Thursday for their involvement in an organized gang supplying illegally activated SIM cards to cybercrime syndicates across the country. The arrests were made in Lal Gopalganj, Prayagraj district, under the jurisdiction of Nawabganj police station.
Both accused worked in collusion with telecom company officials, using forged documents and fraudulent means to activate SIM cards. Sandeep Pandey, son of Raghvendra Pandey from Pratapgarh, had a bounty of Rs 25,000 declared against him by the Chitrakoot police. Mohammed Naufeel, son of Hussain Arif, runs a mobile shop named ‘Marshal Mobile’ in Lal Gopalganj.
The STF seized several items, including four mobile phones, 239 blank SIM cards, 36 Aadhaar cards, ATM cards, driving license, voter ID, PAN cards, and biometric fingerprint scanners from the accused.
Earlier, on May 15, six gang members, including the mastermind, were arrested from Chitrakoot. Following interrogation, Sandeep Pandey emerged as a key associate, prompting a cash reward for his capture. STF officials, under the supervision of Additional SP Vishal Vikram Singh, used a combination of technical and human intelligence to apprehend the accused on June 18.
The investigation revealed the gang’s modus operandi involved forging customer identities to register multiple SIM cards via POS IDs. Complicit telecom employees, including territory sales executives, facilitated the illegal activation. For each customer, two SIMs were activated—one given to the customer and the other sold to cybercriminals. Fake Aadhaar cards and forged documents were used for digital KYC, with batches of 200-300 pre-activated SIMs sold at Rs 150-250 each.
Sandeep, a former employee at a telecom recharge firm, partnered with mobile shop owner Naufeel to source SIMs from Shiv Dayal and telecom staff. Naufeel supplied the SIMs to buyers like Sihan Sheikh from Mumbai. Over the last 2-3 years, the gang illegally activated over 10,000 SIM cards.
A case has been registered at Rajapur police station, Chitrakoot district, under relevant IPC sections and the Information Technology Act.
