Friend Fell Victim to SIM Swap Scam and Lost Ownership of Airtel Postpaid Number. Need Help Retrieving It

Recently, my friend became a victim of a credit card fraud scam and, as a result, lost ownership of his Airtel postpaid number. Here’s how it happened:

My friend was already considering porting his Jio postpaid number to Airtel postpaid. An "agent" suggested he could help with the process, so my friend provided the necessary details. Unbeknownst to him, the fraudster used these details to change the ownership of the number to himself (or potentially other victims) during the porting process.

The fraudster handed my friend a SIM, saying it would activate in three days and that his Jio SIM would stop working—standard procedure for porting. But the new SIM never activated. Turns out, the fraudster had handed over a dummy SIM and kept the real one.

With access to my friend's number, he managed to use my friend's Aadhaar, credit card, and Amazon account details, making transactions totaling around 1,60,000 INR. We’ve reported this, but the police investigation is painfully slow, and Airtel has been uncooperative, saying they’ve never seen such a case and insisting nothing can be done.

We’re desperate to get this number back as my friend has used it for 11 years, and all bank and account details are registered with it. Does anyone have advice on how to retrieve the Airtel number or escalate the issue? Any help or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!