Tracking down a stolen mobile phone led the North Division police to burst an inter-State mobile phone theft and disposal racket. As many as 400 phones worth Rs. 40 lakh were recovered on Tuesday.
The Vidyaranyapuram police got information that a stolen mobile phone was active in Palakkad in Kerala. A team by Inspector Puneeth Kumar tracked down the user, who claimed to have purchased the phone in Palakkad.
This led the police to Subair (43), a second-hand mobile phone dealer, who not only confessed to the crime but also handed over 400 phones purchased from Arif Pasha (40), a resident of Goripalya on Mysuru Road. Police said that Arif heads a gang that steals mobile phones from people using public transport. Arif claimed to be operating the racket for the past one year.
Explaining the modus operandi, Deputy Commissioner of Police Labhu Ram said that the gang would work in groups. In case one of their associates was caught, they would beat him before whisking him away from the crowd on the pretext of handing him over to the police.
The gang members would get a commission based on the model of the stolen phone. Arif would sell the phones in grey markets in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
"We were lucky because the IMEI number of the phone, which was tracked down by the Vidyaranyapuram police, was not tampered with," Labhu Ram said.
Now, the police have the Herculean task of identifying the owners of the stolen mobile phones. “We have to collect details of lost phones from various police stations to track down the owners,” said Charan Reddy, Additional Commissioner of Police.
The Vidyaranyapuram police got information that a stolen mobile phone was active in Palakkad in Kerala. A team by Inspector Puneeth Kumar tracked down the user, who claimed to have purchased the phone in Palakkad.
This led the police to Subair (43), a second-hand mobile phone dealer, who not only confessed to the crime but also handed over 400 phones purchased from Arif Pasha (40), a resident of Goripalya on Mysuru Road. Police said that Arif heads a gang that steals mobile phones from people using public transport. Arif claimed to be operating the racket for the past one year.
Explaining the modus operandi, Deputy Commissioner of Police Labhu Ram said that the gang would work in groups. In case one of their associates was caught, they would beat him before whisking him away from the crowd on the pretext of handing him over to the police.
The gang members would get a commission based on the model of the stolen phone. Arif would sell the phones in grey markets in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
"We were lucky because the IMEI number of the phone, which was tracked down by the Vidyaranyapuram police, was not tampered with," Labhu Ram said.
Now, the police have the Herculean task of identifying the owners of the stolen mobile phones. “We have to collect details of lost phones from various police stations to track down the owners,” said Charan Reddy, Additional Commissioner of Police.