New tech boosting recovery of stolen phones

As per an RTI, in 2019, out of 43,397 mobile handsets that were reported stolen or lost in the city, only 2,088 phones were recovered. In 2020, 39,819 phones were reported missing or stolen, out of which, 1,916 were recovered. Similarly, in 2021, out of 51,030 missing phones, only 3,230 was recovered.

Mumbai: The city police, with access to the Central Equipment Identity Registry (CEIR) portal, have recovered around 20% of all the phones reported stolen or lost in the city this year, as per the Mumbai Police.

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As per an RTI, in 2019, out of 43,397 mobile handsets that were reported stolen or lost in the city, only 2,088 phones were recovered. In 2020, 39,819 phones were reported missing or stolen, out of which, 1,916 were recovered. Similarly, in 2021, out of 51,030 missing phones, only 3,230 was recovered.

However, as per the Mumbai Police, after they started using the CEIR portal – an initiative of the Department of Telecom (DoT) – every police station is recovering at least five to six mobile phones every day this year. The cops claimed that around 20% of the stolen mobile handsets were already recovered.

CEIR is connected to the IMEI database of all the mobile operators and acts as a central system for all network operators to share details of black-listed mobile devices and ensures that devices blacklisted in one network do not work on another even if the SIM card in the device is changed.

Vinay Jambali, director, DoT, Pune who is responsible for Maharashtra and Goa region, while explaining how the system works, said, “Mumbai Police has been using CEIR actively for two months and all police stations across the city now have dedicated teams which feed the data on the portal about missing phones. Once the data, like IMEI number and billing details, is filled in and the phone is blocked and a new SIM card is inserted, two messages are generated – one to the police station, where the theft or loss of the phone is reported and the other to the complainant or owner of the phone. The police can then track down the phone via the newly inserted SIM card,” he said.

Vikesh Seth, a resident of Prabhadevi, lost his newly purchased Redmi Note 10 Lite in a taxi in February 2022.

“I managed to trace the taxi owner’s address, but he refused having seen the phone. After learning about the portal, I registered the IMEI on the portal and the phone was blacklisted. I also reported the loss at Dadar Police Station. After a new SIM was inserted into my phone, they immediately came to know about it and traced the person who turned out to be the taxi driver himself. When the police called him, he immediately returned my phone,” said Seth, who works as a sales executive with a biscuit manufacturer.

A police officer, trained to handle the portal, said after somebody approaches them with a phone theft complaint, they seek details of the handset and register the phone on the CEIR portal with the help of its unique IMEI number.

“The phone is then blacklisted and information is shared with all service providers. Once somebody puts a SIM card in the blacklisted phone, immediately a traceability report is shared with the cops and also the complainant,” the constable said. “We then call that number and inform the user that the phone is stolen or lost and request the user to return it. In most cases, the users being unaware of the status of the phone, send it to us and we return the same to the owner. Otherwise, we request the nearest police station to visit the person and recover the phone from him,” he added.

The officer said that it has worked and people have returned several stolen or lost phones from far-off places in other states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

“In some cases, the accused wipe out the IMEI so that they can’t be traced. They install a lesser value IMEI in these stolen phones. We have busted rackets that wipe out IMEI numbers of cell phones.” said the police officer.

Sarika Pamecha, a resident of Gokhale road, Dadar West, lost her phone in January 2022. While driving a scooter, the phone had fallen off from her purse. “It was a Xiaomi Poco X2 phone. Recently the cops called me and handed over my phone. I had lost hope that I would ever get back the phone. The phone was found by a labourer who had started using it. Through the portal recently they traced him and recovered my phone,” Pamecha added.

Earlier, there were several problems in detecting a stolen mobile handset, said a senior police officer. The police could keep a watch on a handset for a few days and eventually lose track of it.

“The stolen phones were mostly sold and used in far-off places in other states, which made it further difficult for the police to recover the handset even if they succeeded in tracking the device. We manually checked with the service providers if any new SIM card was being used in the stolen phone. Therefore, after a point, we would basically forget about the theft, but the introduction of CEIR has changed the scenario completely,” he added.