‘Operation Track Back’ restores 216 phones to their owners

New Delhi: For most people, a stolen phone is gone for good, a loss accepted with a sigh of resignation. But for 216 individuals, the Delhi Police crime branch has defied expectations, pulling off a remarkable feat that has brought relief and joy to those who thought their phones were lost forever.
As part of their ‘Operation Track Back', the crime branch recovered 305 stolen phones worth over Rs 3 crore. Of these, they managed to find the owners of 216 phones and returned their devices to them in a special gathering organised in central Delhi on Wednesday.
According to special commissioner Devesh Srivastava, this was one of the initiatives to connect with citizens.
"Recognising the incidents of mobile phone theft in Delhi-NCR and the associated risks to citizens' personal data and security, the crime branch launched the operation with the tag line, ‘returning happiness to the citizens'. We have made a significant breakthrough in tracking and recovering stolen and lost phones," Srivastava said.
"The initiative aims to provide relief to innocent victims who suffer distress due to the loss or theft of their valuable mobile devices. Besides solving heinous cases, these are small steps which can restore happiness to common people," he added.
Recently, the crime branch carried out several operations against smuggling networks and seized a large number of phones. On Jan 10, they recovered 195 mobile phones worth over Rs 2 crore from a receiver of stolen phones. On Jan 30, they seized 58 stolen phones worth over Rs 1 crore from a supplier. On Feb 10, the branch confiscated 52 phones from a seller of stolen devices.
Restoring the devices to their owners was not easy. According to additional commissioner Sanjay Sain, many phones were either locked or completely drained, rendering the task challenging. "There were a large number of recovered devices and linking these phones to the registered FIRs and lost reports required meticulous efforts. But the team did a remarkable job," Sain said.
The process involved using a combination of technical tools and investigative techniques, particularly IMEI analysis, according to sources. A team of police officers spent several hours tracking IMEI numbers, FIRs and new numbers of phone users whose stolen devices they had recovered.
This laborious task required the team to sift through reams of data, cross-checking details and following up on leads to identify the rightful owners of the recovered phones.
Despite the complexity and time-consuming nature of the task, the team managed to reunite the stolen devices with their owners.