134 cellphones lost, stolen daily in city, FIR registered in 3 pc of the cases: RTI

134 cellphones lost, stolen daily in city, FIR registered in 3 pc of the cases: RTI

134 cellphones lost, stolen daily in city, FIR registered in 3 pc of the cases: RTI





About 48, 856 mobile phones, which were lost or stolen from Mumbai in 2021 have not been found i.e., on an average 134 phones were lost or stolen every day last year.

Mobile thieves or those using stolen phones are having a heyday as out of the total 52,883 phones that were lost, an FIR for stolen or missing phones is registered only in 1,853 cases or just 3.5 per cent of them, shows data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by The Indian Express .

Further, the number of missing phones in 2021 increased compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019.

The RTI data also shows out of the missing 51,030 phones last year, 16,974 cases were from the western region (Bandra-Jogeshwari) followed by 13,064 cases from Mumbai’s central region (Byculla-Ghatkopar-Wadala, Mumbai Central-Mahim). The east region (Ghatkopar-Mankhurd-Mulund) recorded 8,348 cases, and the south region (Byculla-Mumbai Central to the south end of the city) recorded 8,342 cases and the north region (Goregaon-Dahisar) remaining 6,302 cases.

Police suspect that there are proper gangs based in Mumbai, who gather stolen phones and sell them outside the city. Police have also come across instances where stolen phones were sold outside railway stations and where a mobile repairman helped a thief to format mobile phones in the city, but no action can be taken due to lack of proof or lack of FIR.

Even though in 2021 there were no concentrated efforts to trace these mobile phones, the Mumbai Crime Branch’s cyber police in the central region undertook a special drive in February and managed to recover 105 phones in 45 days.

The stolen phones from the city were traced to far off places like UP, MP, Bihar, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan and Pune, Kolhapur, Beed and Gondia in Maharashtra. However, in the absence of a police case, the Crime Branch could take any action against those using or selling these phones.

A source said, “We had kept around 800 phones on surveillance out of which only 105 could be traced. The thieves sell it to mostly labourers, who buy it at a cheap rate and take it back to their hometowns. We could not trace any iPhone though.”

An officer said, “It’s important for people to take back up their data and lock their phones with strong passwords as they lose their important data and personal photos, videos which can be misused. There was a case where the Gpay password of a person was 1234 and the thief ended up withdrawing Rs 30,000.”

Kishore Shinde, senior inspector of the central region cyber police said, “We are now asking for data of stolen mobile phones so action can be taken against them.”

Unlike the city police, the Mumbai Government Railway Police (GRP) has a special team to trace mobile phones. Out of the 1, 928 phones stolen this year till March, the team has traced 501 phones.

Even though there are no concentrated efforts on part of the city police to find the stolen phones, the silver lining is that Sanjay Pandey, the new Mumbai Police Commissioner, has strictly warned his force to ensure free and fair registration of FIRs in general. Due to this order more cases of mobile phone thefts are being registered, said a police officer.

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