3 arrested for selling sim cards to Maoists in Arwal district

Arwal: Arwal police have busted a gang of three who used to act as a conduit for supplying sim cards on fake electoral IDs to Maoists in the district.
Acting on a tip-off, the Arwal police on Tuesday conducted raid at some mobile phone shops at Karpi under the same police station in the district and arrested three shopowners for allegedly supplying sim cards of different cell companies on fake electoral IDs to the activists of outlawed CPI(Maoist).Police also recovered a laptop, fake electoral IDs with tampered holograms and other incriminating documents.
Talking to newsmen, Arwal SP Manavjeet Singh Dhillon said most of the Maoists, who were recently arrested by the Arwal police, were invariably found demanding levies from contractors using sim cards provided to them by the arrested mobile shopowners. According to SP, those arrested have been identified as Chitranjan Kumar, Gautam Kumar and Arun Kumar, all residents of villages adjoining Karpi.
The SP said the arrested persons used to provide sim cards on fake IDs to Maoists and in return, the Maoists paid them a fixed amount per sim from their income earned through levy. The seized laptop has been sent to the state police headquarters for cyber examination, the SP added.