The Ahmedabad City Crime branch arrested two persons, who were allegedly employed on a salary of Rs 25,000 a month to steal mobiles, which were then unlocked and sent to Bangladesh and Nepal.
The arrested accused has been identified as Avinash Mahato (19) and Shyam Kurmi (26), both currently residents of Surat. Police seized 58 mobile phones from them – of which 29 were iPhones and nine were OnePlus phones. The total value of the phones recovered is Rs 20.60 lakh.
Avinash and Shyam were working as labourers in Jharkhand. Avinash’s older brother, Pintoo Mahato and one Rahul Mahato were involved in mobile thefts in Gujarat. They would get stolen phones unlocked and send them to Nepal and Bangladesh.
Rahul and Pintoo told Avinash and Shyam to work for them and help them steal phones, for which they would be paid a fixed salary of Rs 25,000 a month. Officials said the team trained for 45 days before going to crowded places to steal phones.
They got to crowded places in groups of two with one person standing a distance away with a bag. One team member would grab a phone and quickly pass it on to the second. The second would hand it to the person with the bag and go back into the crowd. If anyone was caught, the others would simply run away. The duo told investigators that they had carried out such thefts in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Anand and Rajkot. The two said they had been given a house near the Surat railway station. In all, 19 complaints for mobile thefts were registered in these areas.