Ghaziabad: Gang of snatchers held, 779 mobile phones recovered

Ghaziabad police officials said the gang procured the mobiles at cheaper prices from different persons and the handsets were either stolen or robbed from different persons.

The crime branch of Ghaziabad police on Tuesday arrested a gang of eight persons who allegedly bought stolen mobile phones and sold them after changing their IMEI numbers. The police also recovered 779 such mobile phones from their possession.

The crime branch on Tuesday arrested eight members of a IMEI changing gang and also recovered 779 mobiles from their possession. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The accused identified as Mohammad Chand, Akram, Kashif, Shanu, Gaurav, Afsar, Manoj Kumar and Hari Om, were arrested following inputs provided to police by a local informer. The police also recovered computer, laptop, IMEI changing equipment and seven other IMEI changing devices from their possession.

“The police conducted a raid at Navyug Market and arrested the accused persons while recovering mobiles and IMEI changing devices. Hari Om is the mastermind of the gang and said that he used different software to change models of different mobile phones. They have been into the business for 8-10 years and had roped in other accused as well. They procured the software from Gaffar Market in Delhi and changed the IMEI numbers of nearly all the models barring Apple and Blackberry,” said Akash Tomar, superintendent of police (city).

Officials said the gang procured the mobiles at cheaper prices from different persons and the handsets were either stolen or robbed from different persons. Later, they changed the IMEIs and also changed the parts of the mobile phones brought in for repairs by their customers.

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“After changing the IMEIs, they sold the mobile phones to different customers and also shared the profit among themselves. Our teams are working on such gangs and have also nabbed several similar gangs in the past.The idea is to eradicate such facilitators who change IMEIs of robbed and stolen mobiles,” Tomar added.

On July 6, the crime branch had also arrested four persons, including a Delhi University student, on charges of snatching mobile phones and later tampering with their IMEI number for selling the phones further. The accused were nabbed from Sahibabad and a total of 149 robbed mobile phones, including 19 iphones, were recovered from their possession.