Published Oct 22, 2026 | 4:57 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 22, 2026 | 4:57 PM
Preliminary leads point to potential financial exposure running into hundreds of crores of rupees across, police said.
Synopsis: The Karnataka Cyber Command has busted a suspected illegal SIM box network operating from two apartments in Bengaluru’s Whitefield area, with suspected links to digital-arrest scams, sextortion and financial cyber fraud across India. A joint operation with the Department of Telecommunications led to the seizure of 10 devices with a combined capacity of 320 SIM connections.
The Karnataka Cyber Command has busted a suspected illegal SIM box network allegedly deployed in digital-arrest scams, sextortion and other financial cyber frauds across India, operating from two apartments in Bengaluru’s Whitefield area and arrested four people in Maharashtra’s Gondia district.
A joint operation by the Whitefield cybercrime police and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Karnataka, led to the recovery of six SIM box devices from the Kadugodi apartment and four from the apartment in Pattandur Agrahara, Dr Pronab Mohanty, Director General of Police, Cyber Command said in a statement on Thursday, 22 October.
The devices had a combined capacity of 320 SIM connections. The investigation has identified the same network of accused as having set up and operated both facilities. Each device had 32 SIM slots. The six devices recovered from Kadugodi had a total of 192 slots configured with e-SIM-provisioned connections from various telecom service providers. The four devices seized at Pattandur Agrahara had another 128 slots.
Preliminary leads point to potential financial exposure running into hundreds of crores of rupees across, police said.
The investigation was kicked off based on an FIR registered by the Cyber Crime Police Station Whitefield on 26 August following a complaint by the Chief Circle Nodal Officer of Bharti Airtel Limited, Bengaluru, about the suspected unauthorised use of Airtel SIM cards.
Investigators identified Tiroda in Maharashtra’s Gondia district as the source of SIM cards allegedly sold and converted into e-SIM profiles for the network. Four accused persons have been arrested so far. All four are residents of Tiroda, Gondia district.
The arrested accused were allegedly involved in alleged procurement of the SIM cards and their conversion into e-SIM profiles for use in the illegal network.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
