The Mumbai Police started a drive in the month of June this year, prioritising and focusing on the return of stolen mobile phones across the city. From June 18 this year to August 21, that is just two months, over 8000 mobile phones have been returned to various police stations and then to their respective owners.

This figure reveals that on average around 125 mobile phones were returned and recovered per day. The practice of tracking mobile phones through their IMEI has been in use for a long time, but now an initiative launched by the Department of Telecommunications, Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), is helping steadfast tracking of stolen mobile phones, be it within the state or even if they are being put to use in other states.

There have been special events at various police stations across Mumbai since July where hundreds of mobile phones have been returned to their respective owners after being returned by those who had ‘found them by mistake’ or someone had sold it to them without the knowledge that they were stolen handsets.

SO HOW DID THE DRIVE START?

The top brass of Mumbai Police felt that mobile phones being stolen were affecting the common man so prioritising the return of these phones was important. The Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, Deven Bharti, instructed all the Zones of Munbai Police to focus on the issue.

Making use of the CEIR after getting details of the IMEI of stolen phones and then putting the CEIR to use for detection of the present user and then contacting them for the return. Every Zonal DCP and then every respective Police station will have a dedicated team working on the issue.

The Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Lakhmi Gautam, oversees the complete process and takes regular updates, while the DCP Cyber Crime is the nodal officer for stolen mobile detection and return.

SO HOW DOES CEIR WORK?

Once the complaint of a stolen mobile phone is received, the IMEI number is entered into the CEIR database and is flagged. This helps lock through a sim that is in use and sends a notification. Further, if another new Sim is installed into the mobile phone, the portal receives a notification informing the police officials tracking the stolen mobile phone.

After this, the said person using the phone is contacted by the police officials from the police station, and he is informed that the phone he is using is a stolen mobile phone and there’s a theft case registered against it.

Police officials tell the person to return the phone to the respective police station by hand or courier if he is located at a distant place.

Many times, if the mobile phone is outside the state and there is a language issue, the person using the mobile phone receives an automated system message asking for the return of the mobile phone to the police station with details of the police official and address where the mobile had to be returned.

The initiative seems to be working as the users of the stolen phones are told that if they return the handsets they will face a police case. A senior police official said, “The victims are also not interested in the case. They want their mobile phones returned, so this initiative helps in the return of mobile phones, and we are seeing such results.”

The initiative has been showing positive results and police stations across Mumbai are now receiving couriers containing stolen mobile phones, even from distant states and cities. The process of returning these mobile phones to the original owners has been simplified by police officials helping with an early return of their handsets.

– Ends