Ghaziabad: Police recovered 125 mobile phones that were stolen or snatched by different accused last year and sold to various people at cheaper costs.
The phones, valued at about Rs 25 lakh, were handed over to their respective owners today. Most victims had registered their complaints through the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), a govt system that tracks mobile devices using IMEI numbers.
Police stated that they were focusing on recovering the stolen and snatched mobile phones and also urged people to file a complaint on CEIR in case of mobile theft.
Recovered mobiles cost between Rs 10,000 and over Rs 1 lakh. The majority were stolen while a few were snatched.
Police managed to trace the phones and recover them as they were resold as cheap second-hand phones and were being used by other people. The current owners were not aware that the handsets were stolen.
Rajesh Kumar, DCP (city zone) told TOI that police made a list of mobile phones stolen between Jan 1, 2023, and Jan 2025 after collecting data from CEIR.”The maximum number of phones were stolen from the area of Sihani Gate, with 60 incidents, followed by the Kotwali area with 23, and Kavi Nagar with 20,” he said.
Teams were sent to several places like Lucknow, Agra, and other districts of Uttar Pradesh. Some of the mobile phones were recovered from other states like Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi.
Kushi, a resident of Ghaziabad had reported the loss of her mobile phone at a market in Oct 2024. “I got a phone call from the govt during my Bachelor’s degree, and all my achievement documents, along with my high school and intermediate degrees, were also on the phone. I lodged a complaint at the Sihani Gate police station, and whilst the police officers made efforts to locate the device, the culprit powered it off,” she said.
However, on Saturday, she received a telephone call from the police to collect her recovered mobile phone from the station.
Another resident Sharadha Sharma said that she lost her mobile phone three months ago while traveling on the bus. “Like other persons, I thought that police didn’t work to recover the mobile phones but police proved me wrong now,” she said.
While over a hundred have been returned to their owners, two teams are still working on recovering more mobile phones. DCP also highlighted the potential financial threats due to the loss of a mobile phone and urged the people to immediately approach the nearest police station to report it or use the CEIR portal as the drive will keep running.
