VIJAYAWADA: Blame it on the lack of infrastructure and delay in investigation procedure, people who lost their mobile phones could not get them back as tracking the lost or stolen mobile phones is becoming a herculean task for police. Vijayawada city reports an average of five mobile phone missing complaints of which only one or two are recovered.
According to sources, the cybercrime wing of NTR district commissioner received more than 3,000 such complaints from January 1 last year to till date as on March 5 of which 30 percent of the mobile phones were recovered while the rest remains untraceable. With more number of mobile missing complaints reporting, NTR district commissioner Kanthi Rana Tata opened a dedicated wing in the Cybercrime police station where one can lodge the complaint with police instead of applying through Meeseva or walking to concerned police station.
The team will work based on the central government’s guidelines and send data to website www.ceir.gov.in to trace and track the location of the mobile phone in association with the Department of Telecom (DoT) and Center for Development Telematics (CDOT). The CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register) database helps the police in tracing lost or stolen mobile.
“If someone inserts a SIM card or connected to a Wi-Fi, the system will trace the location of the phone using the IMEI number and sends the same to concerned police station. With location available, police can find the man and recover the phone,” explained a senior official. Unfortunately, the lack of adequate infrastructure and poor strength delaying the process of investigation.
“In some cases, police were not able to retrieve the mobile phones from the person who is using them due to technical issues such as lack of manpower. For instance, we are unable to retrieve the mobile phone if it traced in Mumbai or Delhi. The stolen phones are crossing borders and we are unable to bring it,” the official said.