The kidnapping for ransom and murder of 13-year-old Utkarsh in East Delhi's Gandhi Nagar area has sent shockwaves through the entire district. It isn't only family and locals; the police department too is saddened by the premature loss of a promising young life.
What has underscored the investigation is how the accused - Pratap and Siddharth - procured five preactivated SIM cards from Krishna Nagar area. The SIM cards, bought on fake IDs, were not verified by Vodafone.
Alarmed, the district police along with Vigilance has started a drive to identify mobile stores in the area palming off preactivated SIM cards without verification. "We have informed the officers in the vigilance unit and are also sending police officers as decoy customers to identify such rogue dealers," said a police officer.
In Utkarsh's case, the accused men had bought SIM cards from Balaji Telecom, which is run by Devendra Gupta. Gupta had activated two SIMs purchased by the accused on September 21 and sold them a day before the abduction.