Mobile vendor held for not following KYC norms while selling SIM cards

Bengaluru: The city police arrested a mobile shop owner for illegally selling SIM cards to foreigners, drug peddlers without collecting address proof or identity documents.

Acting upon a source of information, the city police filed an FIR and arrested is Syed Sibgathullah (32) and sealed his retail mobile shop in Kammanahalli for selling SIM cards without verifying the identity of customers as per the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms.

The city Crime Branch Deputy Commissioner of Police, Kuldip Jain said, “We sent a decoy to his shop for buying a SIM card without address proof or mandatory identity documents like Adhar Card for new mobile connections.”

In the interrogation, Sigbathullah revealed that he would give his other numbers to the third-party members of the operators who call the customer for verification.

“Upon activation of each SIM, he used to collect Rs. 500- 1000 from each fake customers who are from Africa, Gulf, and South East Asia overstaying in the city for drug peddling and white-collar crimes,” Jain said.

Polie has collected 2 mobile phones from the accused.