Kadapa police return 702 recovered mobile phones to their owners

In a major accomplishment, the cyber crime wing of Kadapa district police have recovered 702 stolen or lost mobile phones worth ₹1.86 crore and handed them over to their rightful owners.

Acting on complaints received via the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) portal, the department launched ‘Operation Mobile Shield’, a process that involved the use of advanced technologies such as digital forensics, network surveillance, GPS tracking, IMEI tracking, data analytics to track and recover the mobiles.

With this, the department has recovered a total of 5372 mobile phones valued at ₹11.06 crore in seven phases. Superintendent of Police Nachiket Vishwanath Shelke on Tuesday (November 25) inspected the recovered mobiles and formally handed them over to the victims.

“Our cyber crime effectively utilised the Missing Mobile Tracking System (MMTS) WhatsApp chatbot number 9392941541, along with the CEIR portal to resolve the complaints efficiently,” he said.

“In case of a mobile phone is lost, immediately block all your bank accounts linked to the phone, disable the SIM card. Prior to that, enable the two-factor authentication or biometric security on third party apps like Google Pay and PhonePe,” Mr. Nachiket cautioned mobile users.

Similarly, he advised them to WhatsApp the details of the stolen mobile phone to 9392941541 or lodge a complaint on CEIR portal or at their local police station.

The SP congratulated the cyber crime wing led by Inspector A. Madhu Malleswara Reddy for the achievement.

Women’s safety

Meanwhile, Mr. Nachiket also announced the measures taken to ensure women’s safety, where he informed the media that the SHAKTHI app has been downloaded on over 25000 phones to leverage technology and the police had reached out to 96,000 persons as part of awareness programmes.

“We have conducted 157 self defence training programs to students to empower them physically and mentally, benefiting 13,306 girls. Similarly, family and marital disputes were successfully resolved through counselling at our women’s police stations,” the SP added.