MUMBAI: Wadala police busted a gang involved in international mobile theft from Uttar Pradesh, who stole the phones from India, smuggled them to Nepal and sold them there.
Their modus operandi was such that it would be difficult for investigating agencies to detect them using phones’ IMEI numbers once they cross the border.
Police arrested three men -Aslam alias Siraj Khan (20), Haroon Jameel Teli (19) and Mohammed Imran Nazir Khan alias Dabla (21). New phones worth Rs 6 lakh were recovered from them, TOI reported.
Dabla, who has been involved in criminal cases before, appears to be the kingpin of the gang, said the police.
The three and a few absconding accused hail from Bahraich village, UP, which is near the Nepal border, making it easy for the gang to smuggle the phones.
A probe found that the gang took the stolen phones across the border by road on regular bus services.
The IMEI search for stolen phones is restricted to India, so those taken across the border can disposed of in the second-hand market.
Last month, unidentified people broke into a mobile shop in Wadala and fled with Rs 40,000 from the safe and new cellphones of various brands worth Rs 6.7 lakh.
There was no CCTV camera footage and the police had no leads. On November 4, assistant inspector Ajay Brijadar received information that the gang that broke into the shop where the Bahraich gang who sell peanuts in Mumbai.
Based on the tip-off, police raided a house in Antop hill where peanut vendor Dabla had stayed with another man.
(with inputs from Agencies)
Comment