Union minister chairs review meet on SIM card misuse

HYDERABAD: A day after Hyderabad police arrested 66 persons for allegedly facilitating SIM cards illegally to cyber fraudsters, Union minister of state for rural development and communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani on Thursday held a review meeting with Hyderabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar.

“Chaired a meeting with officers from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Hyderabad police following their recent enforcement action against cyber fraudsters misusing telecom infrastructure, to draw key lessons and strengthen systemic safeguards,” the minister said in a post on X.

“The discussion focused on enhancing intelligence-sharing between telecom authorities and law enforcement agencies, and developing stronger regulatory mechanisms to prevent such misuse at the source before enforcement intervention becomes necessary,” Pemmasani said.

Hyderabad cybercrime police recently conducted Operation Octopus 3.0 across 13 states.

During the video conference meeting held from Delhi, Hyderabad VC Sajjanar explained how SIM cards are allegedly being regenerated illegally by vendors of different telecom service providers. Officials also briefed the minister on how vulnerable persons are being exploited by fraudsters to obtain SIM cards in exchange for money.

Police said some middlemen were allegedly sending these SIM cards to Cambodia, Dubai and a few other countries from where cybercrimes were being operated.