Over the past 15 days, the Mumbai Police have recovered over 5000 mobile phones owned by Mumbaikars that were stolen or had gone missing but were reactivated with new SIM cards. Most of these devices were traced to Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and other northern states, pointing to a well-organised interstate syndicate dealing in stolen phones.
About 20 days ago, thanks to the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) — a centralised database of mobile equipment identifiers operated by the Department of Telecommunications, the police learnt that than 25,000 stolen or missing mobile phones from Mumbai had been recently reactivated with new SIM cards.
The Mumbai Police receive pop-up notifications about stolen phones being reactivated via the CEIR portal. Representation Pic/iStock
As part of Police Commissioner Deven Bharti’s mission to crack this network, nearly 100 to 150 police officers were deployed outside Mumbai to track and retrieve the phones. The haul exposes how the syndicate funnelled high-end stolen phones out of Mumbai and resold them in rural markets for as little as Rs 1000 to Rs 3000.
How it started
Over the past three months, the police have been receiving several complaints about mobile phones either going missing or being stolen from the city. In response, the cops registered missing complaints on the CEIR portal, where the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers of missing mobile phones are listed. These are unique 15-digit codes identifying specific mobile devices on cellular networks. After this process, as and when the devices are reactivated with new SIM cards, the Mumbai Police receive pop-up notifications. The cops also receive details such as the name of the SIM owner and their registered address.
How phones were traced
A police source told mid-day, “This entire mission is being handled by the Mumbai Cyber Police under the guidance of CP Deven Bharti. A few policemen are still recovering mobile phones from Pratapgarh district in Uttar Pradesh.”
“We are visiting the addresses of the new SIM card users and recovering the missing mobile phones. A lot of the expensive devices are being used by labourers who purchased them at throwaway prices in their villages,” a police officer explained.
The officer added, “The inter-state syndicate believed that Mumbai Police would not go to UP to recover a R2000 mobile phone. But they were wrong. We are going to every spot where missing or stolen mobile phones pop up in the CEIR portal.”
DCP R Ragsudha said, “Our team is in UP tracing missing mobile phones. Our officers have been recovering mobile phones from remote villages.” DCP Mahindra Pandit said, “The list of stolen or missing mobile phones is large. We are tracing all of them.”
Rs 1000 to Rs 3000
Price range of devices in rural markets
