Mobile thieves busted, 180 high-end phones recovered

LUCKNOW: If your smartphone was stolen recently, there’s a good chance that it is now being used in another state. Krishnanagar police on Thursday busted a 15-member gang including three minors who stole high-end mobile phones and sold them to their aides in Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha. As many as 180 mobile phones— including nine iPhone, five Blackberry, five HTC, 75 Samsung sets worth over Rs 25 lakh— were recovered from them.
The group had migrated to the city from Rajmahal area of Jharkhand’s Sahebganj district and stayed on rent in Buddheshwar area off Mohan road in the city for over a year. “To evade action, key members of the group identified as Sunil Nonia and Kanchan Mahato would sell the phones to their counterparts or mobile shop owners in other states. At one go, they sold 40 to 50 phones,” said SSP Yashasvi Yadav.
During surveillance, city police would trace locations of the stolen phones in far off locations. The cumbersome process of tracking the phone in a different state worked in favour of the thieves.
Incharge of Krishnagar police station inspector Vikas Pandey said more than 30 phones had been stolen during Lucknow Mahotsava alone. Men in uniform swung into action after phone of a senior bureaucrat’s spouse was stolen.
Yadav announced a hefty cash reward for the 17 members of the team which worked on the case. Many of the nabbed gang members were related to each other. Police said hundreds of Rajmahal natives are active in other parts of UP and in other states as well.