Noida Police Recovers Nearly 200 Missing Phones Worth Over Rs 50 Lakh

Noida, October 6: Nearly 200 missing smartphones worth around Rs 50.91 lakh belonging to Noida residents have been recovered and handed over to their owners, police said on Friday. The police recovered these phones from parts of Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with many of them being used by people who purchased the devices from the second-hand market.

The phones included devices which were either stolen, snatched or went missing from the possession of owners without their knowledge, the police said. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Harish Chander said, "A special initiative named 'Operation Sahyog' was carried out over last three months to recover these phones." Greater Noida Shocker: Passenger Assaulted by Auto-Rickshaw Drivers in Surajpur Area, Three Accused Arrested After Video of Assault Goes Viral.

"As many as 191 smartphones worth around Rs 50.91 lakh have been recovered and are being handed over to their owners after due procedure," Chander said. Additional DCP Shakti Mohan Avasthy said the department had taken a database of complaints regarding mobile phones missing from May 2022.

"We ran a search of their IMEI numbers to find out which of those mobile phones are being used even now," Avasthy told reporters. "There are mobile phones which were sold in second-hand market and were being used by people who bought it unbeknownst to them that their device was stolen," he said. He said the initiative was called Operation Sahyog since it required cooperation of many people who were using these as second-hand purchases.

"Sometimes when we called up the persons using such phones, they doubted our identity as police officials and only after we assured them of our authenticity did they agree to co-operate and return the phone," Avasthy said.

"A lot of strategy went into recovering the phones. Constable Jeet Singh, deployed with the Surveillance team in Noida Police, and Preeti Chaudhary and Sweety Singh of Phase 1 police station played a key role in tracing these phones," the Additional DCP added.

Receiving their phones after several months, some owners said they they had lost hope. "My sister Archana Yadav had lost her phone seven-eight months ago after it was snatched by some miscreants near Sector 122 CNG pump," said Arvind Yadav. "I got a phone call from police last night that the phone has been traced and I would be given it today. I could not believe it," Yadav told PTI.

Babloo, 31, a car driver who lives in Barola, said someone had sneaked away with his phone while he was asleep in his vehicle in Burari, Delhi, with windows ajar in June. "I had bought the Vivo Y15 phone for Rs 12,500 and got it back today. For the first time I am hearing that lost phones are being found and given back to owners," Babloo said.

Vineet, 29, works as a private security guard, and had lost his RedMi Note 11S in November 2022. "I had bought it for Rs 16,500 and someone picked it from my back pocket in the Salarpur market while I was purchasing vegetables," he said. "I had lost hope of getting my phone back," the security guard told PTI. Python Rescued From Truck in Noida: Police Sub-Inspector and His Team Use Rope-and-Sack Technique to Rescue Giant Snake (Watch Video).

Meanwhile, DCP Chander urged people purchasing second hand phones should be careful to check if by any chance they are being sold stolen devices.

Taking genuine bill for products is therefore helpful in such purchases, he said. "I request you all to keep your mobile phones safe because they contain a lot of information related to your personal, financial and professional aspects of life, he advised the victims who came to take back their phones," Chander said.

"We have put under scrutiny the people who were selling these mobile phones as second-hand devices," the DCP said. The Noida Police said the initiative  continue in future also. The police team involved in recovering the phones has been awarded Rs 20,000, he added.

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