Bhubaneswar: A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team met top officers of city police on Wednesday and discussed about possible terror link of the SIM box racket, which was busted here on Aug 16.
The racket was found to have spread to Cuttack and to Ranchi, capital of neighbouring Jharkhand. Altogether 17 SIM boxes have been seized and one person arrested so far.
Twin cities police commissioner Sanjeeb Panda said the NIA team will first interrogate accused Raju Mandal, a native of West Bengal, who had been arrested from a rented house here in connection with the SIM box racket.Mandal is on police remand and the NIA will interrogate him separately till the remand period ends. Thereafter, the NIA team will examine all the seized materials.
“They (NIA sleuths) are competent to find out if the SIM boxes were being operated as a part of any terror module,” Panda added.
City police and their Ranchi counterparts had jointly raided a house at Maulana Azad Colony near Birsa Munda bus stand in the Jharkhand capital and found five SIM boxes installed by the mastermind, Asadur Zaman, a native of Bangladesh. Police had taken Mandal with them to Ranchi. After completing investigation in Ranchi, the police team returned with Mandal.
Police officers said the whereabouts of Zaman are yet to be ascertained. “We will prepare a dossier with all solid evidence to send to Interpol to catch the accused. Mandal has just revealed that Zaman is the mastermind. Simply revealing his name won’t amount to any offence. So we are preparing documentation detailing the offences and role of Zaman,” said Panda.

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