Daijiworld News Network (VM)
Mangalore, Feb 10: It may be recalled that in Oct 2005 some mobile show rooms located at MG Road and Balmatta in Mangalore city were stolen where in more than 100 brand new mobile phones worth more than rupees ten lacs had vanished.
In order to detect these cases, a special team was formed by DySP Mangalore city consisting of police inspector Vinay Gaonkar and other police staff of Mangalore City Sub-division. The team after carefully following the leads has finally succeeded in busting the gang responsible for these thefts.
The case got cracked when police arrested one Mohammed Manarull Sheik 24 yrs son of Mohammed Jesu Sheik resident of Jarkhand state was arrested by the police on Jan 31, 2006 from Mangalore who was found wandering.
His detailed interrogation and verification of the IMEI number of his mobile phone revealed that the set was stolen from a showroom of Mangalore. Under further sustained interrogation he admitted that he along with five others had committed theft of mobile showrooms in Mangalore city and other places in the state including Hubli and Mysore. He also confessed that some of the mobile phones stolen by them have been kept in his room in Mumbai.
Based on this confession police produced him before the court, took police custody and went to Mumbai. There the police found 108 mobile phones kept intact in a room belonging to the accused.
On verification of the IMEI numbers, it was found that all these phones are the ones stolen from two mobile showrooms in Mangalore city on October 18, 2005 and October 20, 2005
The accused has been brought back to Mangalore and produced before the jurisdictional court and remanded to judicial custody.
The police team is still in search for the others accused in the case. Efforts are being made to nab them with help of Jarkhand police, said DK SP B Dayananda.
However it is learnt that the accused belong to Saibganj district of Jarkhand and are habitual mobile phone lifters. They operate throughout the country and target mainly the mobile showrooms. Their modus operendi is to travel in groups of 5-6 persons and identify the showrooms in the daytime. Late in the night they would operate by gaining entry into the showroom by either break opening the lock or removing the air conditioner from the wall. It is also learnt that several such gangs exist in the Rajmahal area of Jarkhand whose main profession is theft of mobile phones.
Also read