Hyderabad: “We usually do not file FIRs when the stolen item is worth more than Rs 20,000. Filing an FIR will make it difficult for you to get your mobile phone back once it is recovered. You will have to go to court and then claim the item and wait for it etc. It’s better we just inquire into the petition without booking a case.” This is the standard reply of Station House Officers or sub inspectors when a person files a complaint that his/her mobile phone had been stolen.
A large number of people allege that the police is not ready to accept their complaint on mobile phone thefts and book a case.
Thefts of mobile phones have become an organised crime in the city with many interstate gangs entering the scene. The gangs function with pickpockets on the field, receivers and smugglers.
Thousands of high-end costly stolen mobile phones are smuggled to other states and even exported to other countries from the city. However, the police, who receive a large number of complaints on mobile phone thefts every day downplay it by avoiding the filing of FIRs.
Although the Hyderabad police had launched a smart phone app ‘lost and found’ for citizens to register complaints about missing/stolen phones, the initiative was not effective as expected. Sources said that a large number of stolen mobile phones get smuggled out of the state while some get sold at the Jagdish Market here in the city. The detection rate of phone theft cases is very less. “It’s difficult to book a case and investigate each phone theft as most of the complainants are not sure if it was stolen or lost,” said a police official from CCS.
