Mira-Bhayandar: Police Traces Down 30 Stolen Mobiles; Returns To Rightful Owners

Mira-Bhayandar: Citizens who had already given up hopes, were pleasantly surprised and happy when they got the call from the Mira Road police station to come and take back their mobile phones which were either stolen or lost in-transit.

A total of 30 mobile phones that were either lost or stolen from people in the past couple of months were recovered and returned to the rightful owners by the crime detection unit of the Mira Road police station in the presence of DCP (Zone I)- Jayant Bajbale and senior police inspector- Chandrakant Sarode on Thursday. The collective value of the mobile phones is pegged at more than Rs.3 lakh.

About Police's Detailed Probe

Alarmed by the rise in the number of complaints related to stolen or lost phones, a special team comprising personnel from the crime detection unit was deputed to investigate the cases. The team collected data of stolen/missing mobile phones by using the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) portal and  traced the locations of handsets on the virtue of International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, supported by electronic  surveillance. The portal proved to be a crucial asset in tracing such devices across pan-India telecom networks.

The CEIR is a citizen centric portal launched by the central government under the aegis of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to curtail the counterfeit mobile phone market, discourage mobile phone theft, misuse and for tracing the lost/stolen mobile devices. CEIR also facilitates in blocking lost/stolen mobile devices in the network of all telecom operators across the country.

In case any person tries to use the blocked mobile phone, its traceability is generated. Once the stolen/lost mobile phone is found it can be unblocked on the portal for its normal use by the rightful owners, officials said. The police also cautioned those who purchase mobile phones from suspicious individuals without proper receipts.