Jamshedpur : Police on Monday busted an inter-state gang of cellphone lifters by arresting seven persons and recovering 77 stolen cellphones from them.
According to information most of those arrested are minors and hail from Raniganj and Jamuria police stations in Asansol and Bardhwan districts of Bengal. Two of the arrested were identified as Mithun Mandal (21) and KanhaiyaNania (19), residents of Raniganj and Jamuria area respectively.
East Singhbhum senior SP, AnoopBirthray said that on Sunday afternoon a youth picked up cellphone from Dharmendra Kumar at Govindpur.
“Some people who were around chased the youth who passed the cellphone to another youth who also started running. But the locals caught both the youths and recovered the stolen cellphone. The people had later called in the police and handed both the youths to the police,” said Birthray.
The senior SP said on being interrogated, the youth who had picked up the cellphone introduced him to be Mithun and the other one from whom the cellphone was recovered as Kanhaiya.
“Both the youths divulged that they were part of a seven-member gang of cell-phone lifters who are committing the crime by staying at a rented house in KunwarBustee in Mango since the past four months and that the gang was about to leave the city in a day or two,” said the senior SP.
Birthray said soon after he set up a team of police officials who raided the rented house in KunwarBustee and nabbed five minors who were in the age-group of 14 to 17 years. He said the team also recovered 77 stolen cellphones which were kept in a bag.
The senior police officers said the gang would have leave the city and got IMEI (international mobile equipment identity) number changed by a local cellphone expert in Asansol before disposing off the stolen handsets.
The arrested persons stated that they would have sold out the stolen cellphones at throw away prices ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5000 and as the IMEI numbers were changed they would not be detected.
During the interrogation, the cellphone thieves said that they had been stealing cellphones from the market in Parsudih, Govindpur, Sakchi, Bistupur, Golmuri, Sonari and Jugsalai.
�With rising cases of thefts and burglaries becoming a regular affair in the city, the administration must appoint extra security personnel and nights guards as a part of preventive measures. It is time for the police to focus attention to curtail the increasing cases of burglary in the city. Thefts not only in residential areas but also in commercial establishments have been reported.
Specially constituted patrolling squads should be been deployed under the limits police stations,� said a resident.
