Student sold 2,500 stolen phones, held

NEW DELHI: The crime branch of Delhi Police have arrested a student pursuing a diploma in pharmacy and his aide for allegedly being involved in more than 50 cases of cell phone snatching and thefts.

The police have recovered 71 expensive mobile phones from the duo. Investigators also claimed that the duo had till date sold more than 2,500 snatched mobile phones. The student, identified as Shamim, used to change the IMEI numbers of the stolen phones with the help of his another aide before selling them.

Police said Shamim is a resident of Palwal, Haryana, who was pursuing a diploma course in pharmacy from a college in Haryana. Shamim’s associate was identified as Akil alias Shakil (37). Senior police officers said that Shamim’s elder brother Salim alias Amir owned a mobile phone repairing shop.

As Salim was not making enough profit from the shop, he started buying the phones stolen by Shamim and changing their IMEI numbers with the help of their aide Habib, a resident of Gavdi in Rajasthan.

“They have sold more than 2,500 mobile phones till date. We had received an input that one Shakil was receiving stolen phones and selling them off. We were told that the suspect would come near Tuglaqabad Fort to meet someone. On this, a police team conducted a raid and nabbed Shakil, who led us to Shamim. A total of 71 stolen mobile phones, 40 from Shamim and 31 from Shakil were recovered,” said deputy commissioner of police (crime), G Ram Gopal Nayak.

During interrogation, Nayak said, Shamim disclosed that all the recovered mobile phones had been purchased from one person in Sangam Vihar, who is yet-tobe-identified. “The accused further disclosed that he along with the help of his brother Salim used to purchase stolen mobile phones which they further sold after change their IMEI numbers. Shakil told police that he purchased the stolen mobile phones from thieves and pickpockets and later sold them to Shamim,” the DCP said. He added that further probe was on in the case.