The Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Police claimed the dismantling of a gang engaged in smuggling stolen mobile phones from Delhi-NCR to Bangladesh.
The STF apprehended five individuals believed to be involved in the illicit operation.
According to the STF, the stolen mobile phones were initially transported from Delhi to Agartala using air cargo. From there, smugglers facilitated their transportation to Bangladesh, acting on the instructions of an individual based in Gujarat.
The investigation also uncovered that a courier firm located in Delhi’s Karol Bagh district received payments exceeding Rs 19 lakh through hawala, a clandestine money transfer system. This firm was allegedly employed for shipping the smuggled phones.
The Noida unit of the STF successfully arrested the five suspects connected to the case on Monday evening.
Additional Superintendent of Police Raj Kumar Mishra, from the STF, stated that they had been receiving information about mobile phones from various manufacturers being pilfered during transportation between factories and logistics centers in Delhi-NCR. Through their inquiries, they discovered the involvement of a gang responsible for these thefts. Gang members either established friendships with truck drivers or assumed employment as drivers for transporters hired by mobile companies to carry out the criminal acts.
The arrested individuals have been identified as Harsh Bansal, Anil Kumar, Anshu Singh, Keshav Karan, and Rajeev Dev. Bansal hails from Rajasthan, while Anil and Anshu are residents of Hathras, and Keshav and Rajeev are from Aligarh.
Further investigation revealed that Bansal had sold 280 stolen mobile phones to a man named Qasim, based in Gujarat, after a heist in May. Qasim, in turn, dispatched these phones to his contact, Amit Hussain, located in Agartala, Tripura, who oversaw their smuggling into Bangladesh.
The STF claimed that Qasim made a hawala payment of Rs 19.60 lakh to the courier company in Delhi for the shipment of the 280 mobile phones.
The case is currently undergoing additional investigation, and legal proceedings are underway. (With inputs from PTI)
