Interstate gang dealing in stolen phones busted

With the arrest of eight persons on Monday, police claimed to have busted an interstate gang involved in selling stolen mobile phones after erasing the IMEI numbers.

The police recovered 735 phones worth `1.30 crore, said DCP (Southeast) Romil Baaniya. Three stolen cars and equipments and accessories used in flashing and erasing the IMEI from the mobile phones have also been recovered from them.

The gang works at four levels — the first level comprises pickpockets and snatchers, the second level is of receivers, the third is of engineers, and the fourth set is of receivers who sell the phones with the changed IMEI.

Following a tip-off, three persons — Shakil Ahmed alias Saeed, Aslam, and Rinku — were arrested from the Okhla Industrial area on February 21. During interrogation, the accused disclosed that they used to take stolen mobile

The gang works at four levels — the first comprises pickpockets and snatchers, the second level is of receivers, the third is of engineers, and the fourth set is of receivers who sell phones with the changed IMEI numbers

phones from one Qayyum, who is a resident of Jurhera in Rajasthan and runs a mobile shop there.

Qayyum used to take the stolen mobile phones from one Kallu and Gaurav Mittal who have mobile shops in Delhi. Mittal was arrested from his shop at Sitaram Bazar in old Delhi along with his partner Rajendra Agrawal.

“One Khalid and Irfan, who ran a shop at Nuh in Haryana, were also arrested along with Gaurav from his shop where they had come for changing the IMEI of stolen phones,” said Mr Baaniya.