Bhayandar: Two tech-savvy members of a gang who changed International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers of stolen phones have landed into the custody of the Local Crime Branch (LCB) unit of the Thane (rural) police. IMEI is a unique 15-digit serial number which is used by the police to track stolen or lost mobile devices.
Stolen booty worth more than Rs 4 lakh including 99 smart phones of various brands and a motorcycle have been recovered from duo identified as Akil Abdul Samad Khan alias Messi (32) and Taariq Kalim Khan alias Baba (30). Residents of Bhiwandi, the accused are school dropouts and had mastered the art of erasing IMEI numbers with the help of software.
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Alarmed by the spate of mobile theft cases in the region, Thane (rural) SP Dr. Mahesh Patil deputed the LCB team to conduct investigations and nab the culprits. The LCB team led by Sr. PI Vyenkat Andhale and API Pramod Badhak under the supervision of Addl SP Prashant Kadam, intensified vigilance and activated their informer network in the region which led to the arrest of Messi and Baba.
After rounds of sustained interrogations both confessed to their crime. Akil who was active in the region for the past couple of months is a habitual mobile thief who has several cases registered against him at police stations in and around the region, police said. The duo would get the IMEI number erased from their aides in Bhiwandi and resell the phones.
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The LCB will soon release the original IMEI numbers of the recovered phones to help their counterparts in solving cases in their jurisdiction. Not ruling out more arrests in the case, API Badakh said, “We typically use the IMEI numbers of cell phones to trace missing or stolen devices, but this gang of tech-savvy mobile thieves used software to erase the IMEI number and fix a new number to sell the stolen phones again making it impossible for us to track the phone.”
Apart from section 420 of the IPC, the investigators have slapped cases under the relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and Prevention of Tampering of the Mobile Device Equipment Identification Number Rules, 2017 against the accused who have been remanded to judicial custody.
