Over 10 lakh residents of Ranchi — at least half of them possessing cell phones — are very careful about their phones. Most of them neither lose their phones, nor do they become victims of phone snatching. At least the crime record shown by Ranchi police justifies the fact.
According to the details of FIRs lodged in different police stations in the city, just 33 cases have been registered in last three months. A total of 12 FIRs were lodged for mobile theft in January this year, six in February and 15 in March. The police do not have the record of recovery of lost cell phones though. “It is a bit
difficult to provide recovery records immediately but some of the mobile phones have been recovered,” said SP Anup Birthare.
“After the law enforcement city police is taking extreme care for the cases related to mobile phone. Instructions have been given to run IMEI number in every service provider within 15 days. It becomes bit problematic when the pickpockets either switch off the phone or change the IMEI number at cheap rates or transfer the phone to other States,” said Birthare.
Mobile phone theft has become a major challenge for the police particularly due to national security implications attached to it. Kotwali Thana in-charge, Arvind Kumar Sinha said, “From the past six-seven months number of such cases has decreased. At the same time due to the lack of attention many peoples either drop their phones or miss it some where and file missing reports.”
While mentioning about the number of cases he said, “There will be around 30-35 percent theft, 30-35 missing and 30-35 lost cases. Generally people do not file an FIR for the mobile phone theft cases, they file missing reports instead”.