Karnataka, Telangana lead in recovery of lost phones, Delhi lags far behind

For the first time, phone recoveries through the Sanchar Saathi portal crossed 50,000 in a single month in October 2025

Karnataka and Telangana have emerged as the top-performing states in recovery of lost phones, each crossing 1 lakh recoveries, as per data from the Sanchar Saathi portal. The portal is an initiative by the department of telecommunications (DoT) which allows reporting and blocking of lost mobile phones, along with providing latest updates and awareness material for citizens. Maharashtra was a close third with over 85,000 phones recovered.

Since its May 2023 launch, the Sanchar Saathi portal, which gets updated every day, has helped recover 7,12,360 phones. (Representational image)

For the first time, phone recoveries through the portal crossed 50,000 in a single month in October 2025, the DoT said in a press release on Tuesday. A DoT official said with approximately 50,000 handsets stolen in India every month and now an equal amount being recovered, “we have essentially broken even.”

Since its May 2023 launch, the portal, which gets updated every day, has helped recover 7,12,360 phones. Additionally, monthly recoveries have surged by 47% from June to October 2025, leading to over one handset being recovered every minute across the country, added the government.

“This success is the result of seamless collaboration. Police personnel across States/UTs, DoT’s Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) and field formations (LSAs) [licensed service area] have worked in close coordination to ensure devices are efficiently traced and returned to their rightful owners. Regular capacity-building programmes and partnerships with state and UT police forces have been critical in strengthening on-ground response and operational excellence,” said the press release.

Meanwhile, Delhi’s recovery rate remains as dismal as it did three months ago. With the lowest rate of recovery among all states and union territories, Delhi police has only recovered 16,205 of the 5,63,826 lost phones traced in the capital. Interestingly, in Delhi, the police were able to trace over 63% of the mobile phones which were blocked on the portal, but the recovery rate is only at 2.87% against the national recovery rate of 27.49%. The recovery rate three months ago in Delhi was 1.87%.

The DoT official quoted above said that one of Delhi’s biggest challenges is its unusual policing structure. While every other state has integrated the CEIR module directly into police stations, allowing district-level monitoring and SHO-led recovery efforts, Delhi stands out as the only place where the crime branch controls the entire system. With districts kept out of the process, the crime branch is overwhelmed and unable to manage the workload on its own, said the official.

“In a state like Telangana, where the recovery rate is highest at over 43%, each district has a reward and punishment system for their police officers. If they are not able to meet their target of recovering a particular number of mobile phones in a week, then they are pulled up often through a “line hazir ho” reprimand or roll call. In each police station of Telangana, the respective SHO has control over how many mobile phones have been blocked, traced and recovered. That doesn’t happen in Delhi,” said the DoT official.

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (crime), Aditya Gautam, did not respond to HT’s request for a comment.

The key step in recovering a stolen phone is getting it reported on the DoT’s Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), which allows authorities to block the device’s unique IMEI number. According to the official CEIR website, even after you block the IMEI, “this does not prevent the police from tracking the lost/stolen phone.” However, the above quoted DoT official and a Delhi Police officer, on condition of anonymity, told HT that many in the force mistakenly believe that once an IMEI is blocked, the phone can no longer be traced.

In light of the low recovery rate recorded in Delhi, a training workshop was also conducted by DoT on the CEIR facility of Sanchar Saathi at the Delhi Police headquarters in September.

Another DoT official had earlier told HT that Delhi’s low recovery rate stems from a lax approach and limited effort by the city’s police. According to the official, even though the government has rolled out advanced tools to track stolen phones, officers are still failing to make “last-mile” arrests despite suspects being easily traceable through a single phone call.

After Delhi, the states with the next lowest recovery rates are Bihar at 13.02%, Jharkhand at 14.57%, and Punjab at 15.29%.