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Chandigarh: 4 held for stealing mobile phones from courier packages
As many as 17 mobile phones worth around ₹4 lakh have been recovered from the possession of the accused, said Chandigarh Police
Police have busted an inter-state gang that stole mobile phones from courier packages sent to Flipkart by a city-based supplier with the arrest of four gang members, including a BCA student.
As many as 17 mobile phones worth around ₹4 lakh have been recovered from the possession of the accused.
They have been identified as Nirmal Tanwar, 26, and Mohammad Mudasshir, 21, both from Lal Kuan, South Delhi; Dan Singh Rathi, 28, from Gurugram, and Naval Meena, 25, from Alwar, Rajasthan.
The accused were nabbed through different raids in Delhi, Rajasthan and Gurugram spanning around a week.
Police said Tanwar runs a mobile shop and Mohammad was a BCA second-year student.
The arrests came on the complaint of Ravneel Malhotra, owner of Tech Arena, Sector 22, and a resident of Mohali.
He had told the Sector 17 police that he had sent 333 mobile phones through Busybees Logistics Solutions to the Flipkart warehouse in Gurugram in January and May. But 130 phones went missing from the packages and were never delivered.
After Flipkart officials denied payment to Malhotra, he had filed a police complaint.
“During the course of investigation, the IMEI numbers of the missing mobile phones were put on surveillance and around 25 phones were found active that led to the four accused’s arrest,” said Mridul, SP (City), Chandigarh.
Tanwar and Mohammad were first to be arrested from Delhi on June 4.
During interrogation, Mohammad disclosed that he received the phones from Rathi, who was arrested the next day.
On the basis of his disclosure, police on June 8 traced Meena, a driver hired by the courier company, who allegedly stole the mobile phones from the package.
“After picking up consignments from courier companies, drivers have to wait outside the FlipKart warehouses for hours as there are deliveries from numerous suppliers across the country. While in line to deliver Malhotra’s consignments, Meena stole some mobile phones and sold them to Rathi for half the price. The latter further sold them to Mohammad. Tanwar eventually purchased the phones from Mohammad and further sold them to different retailers and customers at actual market price,” SP added.
Rajeev Kumar, station house officer, Sector 17, said police had got leads of over 50 mobile phones that will be recovered soon.
