Five people were arrested from Nagaon and Morigaon districts of Assam for allegedly supplying SIM cards to Pakistani agents, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Several mobile phones, SIM cards and other incriminating materials, including a handset used to share defence information with a foreign embassy, were seized, he said.
Assam police spokesperson Prasanta Bhuyan said the arrests were made during an operation carried out on Tuesday night, based on inputs from a central agency and other sources.
"There were inputs that around 10 people from the two districts were involved in fraudulently procuring SIM cards from different service providers and supplying those to some Pakistani agents, thus working against the integrity and sovereignty of the nation," he said.
Five of the accused were arrested on Tuesday night, he added.
Those arrested were identified as Ashiqul Islam, Bodor Uddin, Mijanur Rahman and Wahiduz Zaman, all from Nagaon, and Baharul Islam from Morigaon.
Among the items recovered from the arrested people and houses of the five absconding accused are 18 mobile phones, 136 SIM cards suspected to have been procured for fraudulent purposes, one fingerprint scanner, one high-tech CPU and some documents such as birth certificates, passbooks and photographs.
Bhuyan said that during interrogation, it was revealed that Ashiqul Islam was using a mobile handset with two IMEI numbers from which a WhatsApp call was made, sharing defence information with a foreign embassy.
"That specific mobile phone was found in his possession. Other nabbed people were also found technically involved in this connection. A thorough interrogation is underway," the spokesperson added.
Nagaon Superintendent of Police Leena Doley told PTI that operations to apprehend the absconding five accused are underway and whether more people were involved in the racket will be known later.
Doley refused to identify the central agency involved in the case and maintained that various agencies of Assam police were working together with Nagaon police and the central agency.
On the possibility of the involvement of more people in the racket, the SP said, "Things will be clearer when we arrest the remaining five accused. Operations to nab them are on."
"What they were up to, who were financing them and other details will be clear after a thorough interrogation," Doley added.
