Malaysian eatery operator arrested for selling SIM cards to Chinese cyber fraudsters

A Malaysian eatery operator who flew to India from Kuala Lumpur was arrested by the Gurugram police for selling old Indian SIM cards to Chinese cyber fraud gangs operating from Cambodia.

He was arrested along with four of his associates from Tamil Nadu in connection with a Rs 2.8-crore stock market investment fraud case registered in July this year.

When Mohammed Jamil Bin Mohammed Ekbal (38), who runs an eatery in Kuala Lumpur, arrived at the Tiruchirappalli airport from Malaysia to attend a wedding, he was detained by immigration officials. The Gurugram police nabbed him from there.

“Jamil’s mother is a Tamilian. He married a woman from Tiruchirappalli. We arrested him and brought him back to city on a prisoner transit warrant. We have seized his Malaysian passport, driving licence and some foreign currency from his possession,” said ACP (cybercrime) Priyanshu Diwan.

According to the police, Jamil is being interrogated. An official said he was in Tamil Nadu to buy another set of 500 local SIM cards to supply them to cyber fraudsters.

“Jamil confessed to having sold each SIM card for Rs 1,500 to a Malaysian citizen, who in turn supplied them to Chinese cyber fraud racketeers operating from Cambodia,” said the police official.

Out of the Rs 2.8 crore, the police have so far managed to freeze and recover about Rs 14 lakh.

On July 31, a businessman from the city lodged a complaint with the Cyber West police, alleging that he was duped of Rs 2.8 crore by fraudsters posing as stock market investment advisors.

“The accused promised to provide handsome returns if I invested through them in the stock market. Believing the accused, I transferred Rs 2.8 crore through multiple transactions to bank accounts provided by the accused towards stock market investment. The virtual account on the webpage link provided by the accused showed good profits, but when I insisted on withdrawing the amount, they blocked my access and stopped all communication with me,” read the complaint.

A case was registered on July 31 under Sections 318 (4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) of the BNS against unidentified persons.

During investigation, the police analysed the bank account and SIM card details of the fraudsters and nabbed two local SIM vendors - Surya and Diwakaran - from Tiruchirappalli in August and bank account holders - Raj Kumar and Mayandi - from Chennai in September.

The SIM card sellers confessed to having provided 130 SIM cards to a Kuala Lumpur resident in March and April 2024, charging up to Rs 500 per SIM from him.

Based on their confession, a look-out circular was issued against Jamil.