25-year-old arrested for using juveniles to steal cell phones

Police busted an organised mobile phone stealing racket at the Marina beach, in which school-going juveniles were used to steal cell phones from the beach-goers.
Image for representational purpose only.
Image for representational purpose only.

CHENNAI: Police busted an organised mobile phone stealing racket at the Marina beach, in which school-going juveniles were used to steal cell phones from the beach-goers.

Enquiring with a few teenage boys caught stealing the cell phones, police found that a 25-year-old man had organised a group of boys to steal cell phones and hand them over to him for a small commission.
Mohammed Naseeruddin (18) from Padi, who had come to the corporation swimming pool at the Marina beach on Saturday evening, found his mobile phone missing. While he was searching for the mobile phone, he found an 11-year-old boy stealing a mobile phone from one of the clothes bunch that was placed around the swimming pool.

“Naseeruddin raised an alarm and the men caught the boy. The boy spilled beans and the men nabbed another 11-year-old boy inside the swimming pool who was also stealing mobile phones. The two boys led the men to the 25-year-old man who was waiting outside the swimming pool. The man initially had pretended not to know the boys. The men at the pool alerted the police,” said an investigation officer.
The man was identified as Arafath (25) from Triplicane who claimed to have been working at a sofa workshop. The two boys were studying class 7 in a private school in the city

“Preliminary investigations revealed that  a few dealers at the Burma bazaar and Ritchie Street built up networks to steal mobile phones from commuters at the Marina Beach since the weekends will be crowded. The school-going boys were paid a very little amount and since they were little children, the men were using them as cover. The boys used to snatch mobile phones not only at the swimming pool but also from commuters at the beach,” said a police officer.

The police arrested the man and let go off the boys after collecting letters from the parents.  The police said further investigations are on to ascertain how many children are being used.

No child’s play
Mohammed Naseer-uddin from Padi, who had come to the corporation swimming pool at the Marina beach on Saturday evening, found his mobile phone missing. While he was searching for the mobile phone, he found an 11-year-old boy stealing a mobile phone from one of the bunches of  clothes

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The New Indian Express
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