CID busts cyber fraud ring in Kamrup; five arrested, 1,000 SIM cards seized

Guwahati, Mar 9: In a major crackdown on cybercrime, the Cyber Police Station of the Crime Investigation Department (CID), Assam, arrested five individuals during coordinated raids across multiple locations in Kamrup district.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Moinul Hoque of Kalita Kuchi village under Hajo police station, Moon Kalita and Kangakan Kalita of Sauramuri village, Hirak Jyoti Kalita of Balisatra village and Mostakim Ahmed of Dhuhi village, all under Kayan police station.

The police said on Monday that a suo motu case (No. 01/2026) under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Sections 318(3), 319(2), 336(3), 337 and 61(2), has been registered.

Investigators said the suspects were illegally handling around 200 SIM cards in violation of telecom regulations, and were believed to be part of a larger interstate cybercrime syndicate.

During the raids, police seized a large number of documents and financial instruments, including KYC documents belonging to more than 1,000 individuals, 54 bank passbooks issued in different names, 10 blank cheque books and five unused debit cards.

Officials also recovered 1,000 unissued SIM cards and around 500 issued SIM card covers.

Police also found that the accused allegedly operated a handloom training centre as a front for their activities.

According to investigators, the group invited applications from women aspirants seeking training and collected their personal identification documents during the enrolment process.

The documents were then allegedly used without consent to activate mule SIM cards and open mule bank accounts, which are commonly used to route and launder proceeds of cyber fraud.

Preliminary analysis revealed that several of the seized SIM cards were linked to cyber fraud cases registered in other states, police said in a statement.

Investigators said usage patterns indicated the SIM cards were used in SIMBOX operations, a method in which fraudulent international calls are routed through local telecom networks to evade detection and tracing.

Officials said the investigation is ongoing to uncover the full extent of the network, trace the beneficiaries of the mule accounts and identify victims whose documents may have been misused.

Police are also examining possible links between the suspects and cyber fraud cases reported in other states.