Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Nov 5(IANS): Nearly 1,589 stolen mobile phones worth over Rs 1.5 crore have been recovered from five people in a joint operation in Mathura district.

The operation was carried out on Thursday night. The phones were among a lot of 8,990 that were looted from a truck on the Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border in early October while being transported from a factory in Noida to Bengaluru.

According to the police, the accused travelling in two vehicles were intercepted near Raipura Jat underpass under the Farah police station limits when they were proceeding towards Agra to dispose of the looted mobile phones.

On a tip-off, the operation was carried out jointly by teams of Farah police station, surveillance, SWAT, special operations group (SOG) and special task force (STF).

Superintendent of Police (City) Martand Prakash Singh told reporters that 1,589 stolen mobile phones were recovered and the five accused arrested. The recovered phones are worth Rs 1.5 crores.

The accused have been identified as Rahul a.k.a Aamir Khan of Mathura, and Shahid, Azharuddin, Samir and Ajmal of Nuh district in Haryana.

Earlier, 113 stolen mobile phones worth Rs 11.3 lakh had been recovered from eight accused.