Bengaluru: Whitefield cybercrime police busted illegal telecom hubs operating from two apartments in Whitefield area, which were equipped with 10 sim box devices capable of handling 320 connections. Investigators said the illegal networks were linked to digital arrest scams, sextortion and other financial cyber frauds across the country, with preliminary leads pointing to possible losses running into hundreds of crores of rupees.Maske Bapurav Ramrao alias Niranjan Maske, 20, and Yesh Patil, 21, were arrested and two 17-year-old juveniles detained. All four belong to Gondia district, Maharashtra.The operation, conducted in coordination with department of telecommunications (DoT), was based on a complaint filed by two major telecom service providers, and led to the seizure of devices from apartments in Kadugodi and Pattandur Agrahara.The case was registered on Aug 26 following a complaint by the chief circle nodal officers over unauthorised use of sim cards in a sim box setup operating in Whitefield and Kadugodi.Investigations led police to two facilities run by the same criminal network. At the Kadugodi apartment, police recovered six sim box devices, each with 32 slots, providing a total capacity of 192 connections. The devices were configured with e-sim-provisioned connections from telecom service providers.At the second location in Pattandur Agrahara, four more devices, each with 32 slots, were seized, taking the total capacity across the two facilities to 320 sim connections.Maharashtra linkAs investigation progressed, police traced leads to Tiroda in Gondia district, where sim cards were sold and converted into e-sim profiles for use in the illegal networks.Police said the accused are involved in activities connected with e-sim supply chain, including procurement and provisioning of telecom resources used by the network. However, the actual number of victims, the amount lost and the full extent of the suspected network are yet to be established.
