The Special Operations Team of Cyberabad’s Madhapur Zone and Raidurgam Police arrested Garadi Ramanji, a habitual offender involved in buying stolen mobile phones at cheap rates and selling them to gangs in Hyderabad, who tampered with their IMEIs and sold them at high prices. Police recovered 563 mobiles belonging to various reputed brands from him. Along with the stolen mobiles, cash, a Hyundai Creta, all worth Rs 1.90 Crore was recovered from him, said DCP Madhapur G Sundeep.
Hyderabad based receivers Asif and Arshad and suppliers of stolen mobile phones Akash and Sunny of Andhra Pradesh and Vamshi of Karnataka are absconding. He was nabbed at Raidurgam when he was travelling in his car with all the stolen mobiles packed in bags.
Ramanji had earlier worked as a conductor in the APSRTC and quit the job in the year 2005 due to meagre income. He then entered into the real estate business, but ran into losses. He then started committing property offences and was arrested twice by Rachakonda and Cyberabad police.
Police said that he maintained close contacts with pickpocket gangs operating in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, who supplied to him mobile phones stolen in their respective states. He sold them to gangs in the city, who tampered with the IMEI numbers, unlocked the device and sold them for half the price.
The mobiles recovered from him were stolen in the past six months, the police found. Police are now working to nab the receivers, whom they suspect could be a part of a bigger racket.
