Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, Sep 7: Powai police have arrested a SIM gallery sales executive as the 11th accused in an engineering admission fraud case, alleging that he supplied SIM cards activated without customers’ knowledge to members of the racket.

The accused, identified as Abu Saif, 21, a Versova resident, was employed at a SIM gallery in Mumbai’s western suburbs. Police said he allegedly sold at least 300 SIM cards without proper documents in 2026.

Sub-inspector Ramchandra Pinjarkar identified 23 SIM cards allegedly issued without obtaining the required documents. Saif has since applied for bail.

The case was registered on July 17. The 10 other accused, who were arrested from Viman Nagar last month, were released on bail on Wednesday.

DCP (West Zone-3) Datta Nalawade said police teams had been tracking the racket for nearly a month. The investigation involved collecting details of money withdrawn from bank ATMs and petrol pumps, besides tracing cash allegedly collected from victims.

The detection team comprised senior inspector AS Sawant, inspector Sushant Bandgar, sub-inspectors Prashant Kendre, Sagar Jadhav and Pinjarkar, along with other police personnel.

According to Kendre, a court directed a bank to transfer Rs 16.5 lakh to the account of a Powai resident who was allegedly duped with a false promise of securing her son’s admission to an engineering course at IIIT Hyderabad.