Uttarakhand police ‘distributing’ phones worth crores  

The Uttarakhand Police these days are surprising people by giving them expensive mobile phones. Actually, the state police is actively nabbing the phone snatchers and returning the devices to the real owners. Mobiles worth crores of rupees have been returned so far and the police still possess phones valued at Rs 2 crore, that it will return.

The 'Mobile Recovery Cell' of the Uttarakhand Police was set up in 2017 with its headquarters in Dehradun following a spate of mobile snatching incidents. The Cell was set by Director General of Police (Law and order) Ashok Kumar.

"Many people file a report of their stolen mobile phones with the police. But sometimes they refrain from going to the police station as they don't want to be entangled in legal matters. This is a very serious situation. In such cases, their phones could be used in criminal activities," Kumar told IANS. "This prompted me to set up the Mobile Recovery Cell," he added.

The headquarter of the Cell is situated on Gandhi Road in Dehradun.

"Putting the lost phones on surveillance resulted in 'people's trust in police' as we started finding and returning the mobiles. In 2019, the Cell had recovered a total of 781 mobile phones with an estimated value of Rs 1 crore," the DGP said.

As per the statistics provided by the Cell, since its inception 26 months ago, a total of 1,643 mobile phones have been recovered. It means an average of 75 devices every month.

The total value of the recovered items is estimated at Rs 2,05,37,500.

The DGP said: "Initially, when the police went door to door to return people's phones, they could not believe it. However, now the effort has been publicised widely via the media and the beneficiaries and people themselves reach the headquarters to receive their property".