Police cautions public after rampant mobile theft cases

SHILLONG: The police on Friday issued an advisory on mobile theft cases and asked the people to be cautious.
In a statement, the Superintendent of Police (City), Vivek Syiem said that the number of cases of theft and pick pocketing has been on the rise, especially of mobile phones in busy areas of the city.  
He said that the criminals often target cell phones since they can be easily sold in the black market.
“Therefore, the public should be cautious and safe guard their mobile phones at all times particularly in public places”, Syiem said.
The city SP also added that people coming from rural areas for marketing have been more vulnerable to such mobile phone snatching. The advisory of city police assumes significance as since in the year 2015, 127 cases of mobile theft were registered and the number went up to 158 in the year 2016. This year till June 30, 60 mobile theft cases have been reported in the district. Last year, 77 mobiles were recovered.
Punishment for stolen property
The city police have also made it clear that a receiver of stolen property is liable of U/S 411 IPC, in which the punishment is imprisonment for 3 years.
Syiem said that the people should also refrain from buying second hand mobile phones from strangers or mobiles without any papers/phone boxes and chargers as they are likely to be stolen items.
When the stolen mobiles are sent to mobile repair shops to break the password, police wanted the proprietors of such shops to only break and reset the password of phones after they are satisfied that the customer making the request has produced documents and box of the phone to ensure that it is not a stolen phone.