Two from Bengaluru arrested, 512 mobiles worth Rs 78 lakh found

BENGALURU: Central Crime Branch (CCB) arrested two people for allegedly operating a gang of mobile phone thieves and selling the booty in Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai for double the cost. Police seized 512 smartphones worth over Rs 78 lakh from Afzal Pasha, 27, a resident of Padarayanapura, and Ezhar, 40, of Shivajinagar.
Police suspect Pasha to be the kingpin since he has contacts with over 12 mobile phone robbers, Ezhar being one of them. Pasha was earlier arrested on charges of phone theft and released on bail. City police commissioner CH Pratap Reddy said the accused would sell the stolen phones to their contacts in Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai to evade police here.
CCB sleuths received information that Pasha ran a syndicate and he would allot certain localities to his associates to rob their residents. He would collect the stolen phones from the gang and courier them in a box to his contacts in other states via buses. Each box would have at least 100 phones.
A team headed by inspector Hazaresh Killedar caught Pasha and Ezhar when they were at a bus station and about to send boxes of stolen phones to Hyderabad. An investigating officer said: "We arrested the duo on July 5, but it took time to recover the 512 smartphones from Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Those sold in Delhi are yet to be traced."
Pasha would pay his gang Rs 2,000-3000 for each stolen mobile and sold the booty for Rs 6,000-8,000 to his contacts elsewhere, the officer said, adding Pasha was lured into the trade by his father Aslam Pasha, a habitual offender.