Five people including a minor boy were arrested on Saturday in connection with mobile phone snatching cases in the city. In all, 62 mobile phones were recovered from the accused. Two bikes used in the crime were also seized by the crime branch.
In the wake of rising incidents of mobile phone snatching in the city, senior officials constituted a team of crime branch to keep an eye on persons indulging in selling or buying stolen mobile phones. The team received a tip-off that some youths are roaming in Sadar Bazaar area to sell stolen mobile phones. The crime branch traced the suspects and detained five people on two bikes from the area.
According to ASP (crime) Guruprasad Parashar, the youths tried to flee after seeing the crime branch team but they were arrested after a chase. A bag containing mobile phones was recovered from them. The accused have been identified as Zuber Sheikh of Bhisti Mohalla, Arsalan Sheikh, Sahil Sheikh, Jai Kumar and their minor accomplice.
In all 62 smartphones were seized from the accused. They allegedly confessed their crime and informed the crime branch officials that some of the mobile phones were snatched by them from the people and some of them were stolen from various places in the city.
Some of the mobile phones were snatched by the accused before the lockdown but they could not sell them at that time. Accused Jai Kumar is the kingpin of the gang and he provides the bike to the gang members to commit the crimes. The four accused used to give mobile phones to Jai Kumar and he used to pay for mobile phones to them. Also, Jai Kumar often committed mobile snatching with gang members. Police came to know about the criminal record of some the accused.
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