Before Shutdown Of Hundreds Of Thousands Of Illegal IMEI Phones, The Ministry Of Industry's Criminal Investigation Unit Coordinates: Find Formula

Illustration of the destruction of 2,464 illegal HPs of various brands worth Rp3.5 billion by Soetta Airport Customs and Excise on Tuesday 8 October 2019. (Between)

The Criminal Investigation Unit of the National Police will turn off 191,000 cellphones recorded using illegal International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI). However, the implementation was carried out after coordination with the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin).

"Regarding the shutdown of 191,000, coordination and communication with various parties are still being carried out," said Director of Cyber Crime at the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency Brigadier General Adi Vivid when confirmed, Tuesday, August 1.

"The one in charge is related to IMEI registration and cellphone providers," he continued.

The purpose of the coordination is to find a method to kill hundreds of thousands of cellphones with the illegal IMEI. So, later it will not harm the community.

"What is certain is that we are looking for the best formulation which will not cause panic and will not harm the community as consumers," he said.

On the other hand, Vivid also asked the public not to panic. Because, the steps that will be taken will go through the socialization stage.

"The public does not need to worry, we will definitely carry out the best formulation and will also go through socialization," said Vivid.

Meanwhile, Bareskrim Polri will turn off or shut down hundreds of thousands of cellphones recorded using illegal IMEIs. The process is carried out randomly in several cities.

This step was taken in the aftermath of the disclosure of the illegal IMEI registration case in the CEIR (Centralized Equipment Identity Register) system.

In that case, it was recorded that there were 191,000 cellphones whose IMEI registration process was unofficial.

"Later we will shut down randomly sampling in several cities," said Vivid.

In the disclosure of the case, Bareskrim named six suspects, two of whom were members of the Ministry of Industry and the Director General of Customs and Excise.

"From the results of this disclosure, we have arrested 6 suspects," said the Head of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the National Police, Komjen Wahyu Widada.

Two suspects are individuals, namely F who is a State Civil Apparatus (ASN) at the Ministry of Industry and A at the Director General of Customs and Excise.

Meanwhile, the other four suspects are private parties who play the role of suppliers of illegal electronic devices without rights in the entry stage. They have the initials P, D, E, and P.