CHENNAI: A 25-year-old youth, who was caught red-handed by the police, when he tried to snatch a mobile phone from a middle-aged woman near Kannathur on Friday morning, shocked the cops when they recovered nearly 2,300 stolen mobile phones from him and his accomplice.
The arrested were identified as Praveen Kumar (25), a resident of Poonga Street in Palavakkam, and Hanumanth Ram (40), of Rajasthan and resident of Adambakkam. “We have seized the phones from Hanumanth’s shop. We suspect him to have contact with other youth also involved in such crime. We are still investigating,” said a senior police officer.
Police said that on Friday morning, the woman was walking down on the road, when Praveen riding motorbike tried to snatch her mobile phone. Hearing screams, passersby came to her aid and a police team on the rounds immediately nabbed the suspect.
During interrogation, he confessed he had stolen mobile phones and sold them to Rajasthan-based man Hanumanth.
Explaining his modus operandus, police said that Praveen would snatch mobiles from couples at knife point, from train passengers and people at the beach and those walking alone. He told the police his main targets were women and elderly persons.
“Praveen would snatch mobile phones and sell them to Hanumanth at a low cost. For Android phones, he would receive around Rs 750 to Rs 1,000 and for basic mobile phone he would get Rs 300 to Rs 500,” said an investigating officer.
He also told the police that Hanumanth was aware the all were stolen mobiles and would never provide receipts for the goods. “Hanumanth very cleverly would parcel the mobile phones to a dealer in Rajasthan by train to escape from city police who trace mobile phone with the IMEI (international mobile equipment identity) number. He would either send the phone to Rajasthan or sell the spare parts of the phone in the city clearing all the evidence of it being a stolen property,” said the police officer.
Praveen also confessed that he had been stealing phones for the past four years. But the mobile phones that were recovered were stolen in 2015-16. Investigations also revealed that Hanumanth ran a pawn broker shop, but mainly was into sale of mobile phones.
A senior police officer said that such stolen mobiles are usually dismantled and sold or sent to other districts and to Nepal making it difficult for us to trace. Because when the service provider is given the IMEI number, only two per cent of the networks gets traced.