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Ggm cops recovered stolen phones worth ₹3cr this calendar year
GURUGRAM: Gurugram police recovered 1,512 mobile phones worth approximately ₹3 crore and have handed them over to the owners
GURUGRAM: Gurugram police recovered 1,512 mobile phones worth approximately ₹3 crore and have handed them over to the owners. Police said they launched a special drive each month to trace stolen phones.
Incidentally, in 2021, 900 mobile phones worth ₹1.2 crore were recovered by Gurugram police.
Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that police have handed over stolen mobile phones to the owners and a special meeting was organised at the commissioner’s office on the tracking and recovery operation. “We have formed at least 20 teams that have actively searched and traced stolen mobile phones which were either snatched, stolen or lost from areas across the city,” he said.
Radhika Verma, an executive with a multinational company, said that she was surprised when she received a phone call from a police officer on October 21, informing that her Samsung Galaxy Note 20 phone, which was stolen from a market in August, had been traced. The police asked her to collect the phone from the police commissioner’s office.
“I thought it was a prank call and I did not visit the commissioner’s office, but then I received three more calls and informed my brother about it. Later, we both went to the commissioner’s office and were overwhelmed with happiness to get the phone back”, Radhika said.
“The phone was stolen when I was returning from my office and had stopped to buy a gift for my nephew for his birthday. I tried to track it using the ‘international mobile equipment identity’ (IMEI) number with police’s help, but it was switched off for almost 20 days and I gave up on it. The phone had memories of my previous office, hostel and pictures that had not been shared on social media platforms. Getting it back was a great feeling,” Radhika added.
Police said that miscreants involved in snatching mobile phones sell them at throwaway prices and format them within days after snatching or stealing the equipment. Many of them are not professional snatchers and were caught the moment they inserted a new sim card. We traced them as soon as they started using the stolen phones.
Police officials, however, admitted that the recovery of cellphones is never considered a priority. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, less than 30% of stolen cellphones across the country are recovered by police.
ACP Sangwan said that the idea is to recover not just smartphones but low-end phones as well. “This is an exercise and requires the involvement of police personnel who are tech-savvy. Earlier, we were dependent on professionals and had to outsource the work, but now we have technically qualified engineers in the force who are working on such cases,” he said.
