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Jalandhar records around 36 cases of missing mobiles everyday
The city police have been receiving around 36 complaints of missing mobiles every day since the last two years and hardly any phone has been recovered so far.
The city police have been receiving around 36 complaints of missing mobiles every day since the last two years and hardly any phone has been recovered so far.
According to the information, which Hindustan Times has received under the Right to Information Act, 2005 from the Jalandhar police commissionerate, a total of 26,561 mobile phones have gone missing from April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2015. The complaints of the same have been registered with police station outreach centres (PSOC) and community policing suvidha centre (CPSC), which come under the jurisdiction of the commissionerate.
The details also stated that from April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014, 13,581 mobile phones, reportedly, went missing in Jalandhar and in next financial year (April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015), 12,980 complaints of missing phones were registered with the police department.
As per the procedure, when someone loses his or her mobile, the complaints are to be registered with PSOC and CPSC. In most of the cases, people usually block their subscriber identity module (SIM) from their respective mobile telecom company after giving a copy of the police complaint.
Meanwhile, a senior police official said it was almost impossible to trace every phone, as when someone gets any lost phone or steals it, they tamper with the IMEI serial numbers of the phones immediately.
He said, "Once the IMEI number gets changed, it becomes almost impossible for us to crack the case."
The officer added, "The only instance a missing phone is put on tracking is either when the police suspect heinous crime or someone has good rapport with a police official."
Manish Kumar, a resident of Sher Singh Colony, said the police did not take mobile missing cases seriously. "They merely hand out complaint slips," he said, adding that he had lost a costly mobile phone in 2013 and police were yet to recover the mobile phone.
Navneet Kaur, a college student, said, "The police had recovered her phone after six months of registration of missing complaint when she approached her uncle who is in police department and the phone was put on tracking."
Names of Saanjh Kendras Mobile phones missing
(April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014) Mobile phones missing
(April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015)
PSOC Division-2 122 1037
PSOC Division-7 69 969
PSOC Division-8 76 888
PSOC -Bawa Khel 55 200
PSOC -Bhargo camp 55 939
POSC Navi Baradari 32 338
PSOC Sadar 154 298
CPSC Cantonment 2064 1962
CPSC Central 3816 2019
CPSC Model Town 1070 557
CPSC North 3292 3337
CPSC West 2776 436
Total 13581 12980
