Centre makes police verification necessary for SIM card sellers, discontinues bulk connections

The Narendra Modi authorities on Thursday made police verification of SIM sellers necessary, additionally discontinuing bulk connections to curb frauds.

“Now, it will be mandatory for new dealers (of mobile SIM cards) to go through a police verification and biometric verification. Registration will also be compulsory for all point-of-sale dealers now”, Union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw introduced in a briefing. He mentioned {that a} penalty of ₹10 lakh will likely be imposed on these discovered violating guidelines.

The minister added that because the launch of Sanchar Saathi portal, the federal government detected and deactivated 52 lakh connections which had been fraudulently obtained. The authorities additionally blacklisted 67,000 sellers engaged in promoting cellular SIM playing cards. He added that FIRs had been filed in opposition to 300 SIM card sellers since May 2023.

“Earlier, people used to buy (mobile) SIM cards in bulk. There was a provision for this to buy SIM cards in bulk. However, it has been decided to end this provision. Instead, we will bring a proper business connection provision which will help in stopping fraudulent calls,” the minister mentioned.

Vaishnaw mentioned there are 10 lakh SIM sellers and they are going to be given adequate time for police verification. He mentioned that the Department of Telecommunications has additionally discontinued the availability of bulk connections and as an alternative a brand new idea of enterprise connection will likely be launched.

“Besides, KYC of businesses, KYC of person taking handover of SIM will also be done,” Vaishnaw mentioned.

In May this 12 months, the Punjab Police had blocked over 1.8 lakh SIM playing cards allegedly activated utilizing pretend identities, and likewise arrested 17 folks for issuing such SIM playing cards.

The Punjab Police’s Internal Security wing together with the Department of Telecom carried out an aggressive crackdown in opposition to distributors and brokers concerned in promoting SIM playing cards utilizing pretend IDs, PTI reported.

The Punjab Police had mentioned a majority of cyber crimes and ‘anti-national’ acts had been carried out utilizing the cellular numbers linked to false paperwork.

(With PTI inputs)