CHENNAI: It was an emotional moment for Ananda Priya, a college student from Korattur, when she got back her lost mobile phone. The phone, gifted by her father as her birthday present, had gone missing and she never thought she would see it again.
When Priya received a call from the Ambattur Cyber Cell that her mobile phone had been found, she could not believe the news. “I was emotionally attached to it since I received it from my father. For several days, I could not ask my father for a new phone and was worried,” she said.
The newly formed 12 Cyber Crime cells in the city police limits have successfully recovered as many as 1,193 missing and stolen mobile phones during the past few months. The phones were distributed to respective owners on Friday. Many people who received their phones had similar stories to share.
“At least 80 per cent of the recovered phones were missed by people unknowingly. Though mobile phone missing is not a crime, we traced the phones using IMEI numbers. A few of them were recovered from the city, while others were recovered from other districts and States,” said city police commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal. The police said that the total worth of the recovered mobile phones was Rs 1.2 crore.