'Stringent measures in used cell phone, SIM card issue'

With second-hand cell phones and documents of genuine customers being misused to sell SIM cards to anti-social elements turning into a menace, of late, Police Commissioner M Chandra Sekhar has chalked out some regulatory measures.

Announcing this to the media on Wednesday, the commissioner said that he would be shortly serving notices to second-hand phone dealers, asking them to compulsorily collect documents from sellers and buyers as a proof of identification, in view of safety and security measures. “Moreover, it has emerged that 90% of habitual offenders use SIM cards procured on the basis of duplicated documents of bona fide customers. This became further evident after 29 cell phones and nine SIM cards were seized from jail inmates after a raid recently. Two cases have been registered against the distributors in this regard,” said Chandra Sekhar.

The commissioner attributed it to the business tactics by cellular service providers, who, in order to reach their targets, sell pre-activated SIM cards.

He also said that, in the coming days, he will talk to the companies for any inter-regulatory measures deployed by them, besides convening a meeting with the Department of Telecom.

‘Stern action against FB’
With the spurt in cases of derogatory Facebook posts and continuing nonchalant attitude of the authorities concerned with social networking site, Chandra Sekhar has hinted at acting tough against them.

Reacting to media queries, the commissioner said, “Three notices have been dispatched to Facebook authorities, including the recent case of derogatory Facebook post on Goddess Durgaparameshwari, the presiding deity of the temple by the same name at Kateel here. However, they are not cooperating by sharing the required information in investigating the cases.”

The commissioner, who sounded tough, said, “The Facebook might be a big company, but, when the safety, security, unity and integrity of the nation is concerned, it is small. We will explore the legal means to take them head on, to bring the cases to logical conclusion.”