Cops convince thieves to return phones

Through phone calls, the police are trying to convince people to return the stolen phones with them

- Vinay Dalvi

MUMBAI: Forty-two-year-old head constable Parag Kapdanis, attached to the Kurla police station, is constantly hooked to a phone. He isn’t chatting or playing games; rather, he is trying to convince people residing in far-off places to return the mobile phones they are using, as the instruments have been reported stolen or missing, a cognisable crime. Thanks to the efforts of the policemen like Kapdanis, his zone was able to return around 634 mobile phones lost or stolen since 2023 to their rightful owners.

A police officer told HT that after the location of a person who had a stolen/lost phone in his possession was traced—which was most often out of Maharashtra—a long process began to recover the phone. “We can't go to every location for every single phone, as the expense on this is considerable,” he said. “So, we call the SIM card holder and let them know that the mobile phone in their possession has been reported stolen or missing and that they should immediately return it or face criminal action. We tell them to courier the phone to the local police station where the case is registered.”

Thanks to the Central Equipment Identity Registry (CEIR), an initiative of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the recovery of stolen or lost mobile handsets has gone up considerably, said a police officer. “After the introduction of CEIR, we have deployed dedicated policemen like Kapadnis to trace and bring back missing mobile phones,” he said.