Police busts racket smuggling stolen phones to B’desh; 8 held

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has arrested eight members of an interstate racket that smuggled stolen and snatched mobile phones to Bangladesh via West Bengal. The network sourced devices from pickpockets and robbers on DTC buses and sent them across the border through handlers. Police seized 294 mobile phones worth about

Rs 50 lakh, of which 45 matched FIRs and 30 lost reports.

The operation began on July 27 with the arrest of four Delhi-based men, followed by Rahul alias Pichatar, Mojahir alias Sameer and his associate Shivam Kumar Jha. Their links led police to Mohammad Khalid, 50, of West Bengal’s Nadia district, who had relatives in Bangladesh. A search of his home yielded 30 phones and contacts of Bangladeshi handlers.

Khalid admitted to receiving nearly 1,000 stolen phones from Mojahir for cross-border smuggling. Police said the racket exploited the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), which blocks stolen phones in India, making them valuable only abroad.

In total, 194 phones were directly recovered and 100 more traced through CEIR.