Hyderabad: Just buying a SIM without any valid document for ID and address proof is no longer possible. You can't buy a SIM card just like that from a roadside vendor by paying extra amount. They won't sell cards now, if they sell, they will land in jail. Selling mobile SIM cards without valid documents is now an offense that can attract 10-year imprisonment. Alerted by increasing number of cases of misuse of cellular phone SIM cards by criminals and anti-social elements by providing false and forged documents, Hyderabad city police have warned the vendors against such unverified transactions.

Hyderabad Commissioner of Police CV Anand said that as the illegal distribution of SIM cards by the sellers and distributors without checking the original documents, there will be definitely a potential danger to the country and even citizens in the society like it happened in Abhay kidnap and murder case recently. It is the shop owners’ responsibility to cross check and conform the applicants' documents, he said.

The Commissioner also said that during a special drive conducted on Tuesday, 167 shop owners were identified who were distributing the SIM cards without taking proper documents and cases were registered against them under IPC sections 420, 409, 468 and 188.

The Commissioner conducted a meeting with various mobile service providers and explained them how the SIM card dealers and retailers had been violating the rules. All the dealers, retailers and service providers including the users should strictly obey the rules, he said. 107 criminal cases on dealers and 597 bind-over cases on retailers were booked during the special drive, he said.