Bhopal Police Bust Inter-State Gang Supplying Fake IDs, SIMs, & Bank Accounts To Cybercriminals

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): City’s Hanumanganj police on Saturday busted an inter-state gang from Bihar accused of making and selling fake Aadhaar and PAN cards, SIM cards, and bank accounts mainly to cyber criminals across India. The Hanumanganj police conducted a raid on the gang’s call centre and arrested seven individuals, including six men and one woman.

Bhopal police commissioner Harinarayan Chari Mishra told the media that the accused used to manipulate official identification cards by altering photographs and linking fake documents to open fraudulent bank accounts.

The gang also provided these accounts to cybercriminals for misusing them in fraudulent schemes, including fake loans and online gaming scams, he added. The police seized a significant number of fake Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, SIM cards, bank passbooks, 20 mobile phones, laptops, printers, and other incriminating materials.

Among the accused is the mastermind, Shashikant Kumar, who used open-source platforms to verify Aadhaar-PAN linkage and fabricated new documents using Photoshop and colour printers.

Preliminary investigations revealed the gang’s operations extended to cities like Mumbai, Indore, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad. The suspects frequently relocated to evade police action and exploited their network to sell fake accounts at ₹10,000 each.

CP Mishra said that the arrested accused have been identified as Shashikant Kumar, Sapna Tati, Ankit Kumar, Kaushal Mali, Roshan Kumar, Ranjan Kumar and Mohammad Titu.