Mobile phones stolen from Delhi-NCR being smuggled to Bangladesh, 5 held: UP STF

During investigation, it came to light that after a heist in May this year, 280 stolen mobile phones were sold by Bansal to one Gujarat-based man identified as Qasim, according to the STF.

With the arrest of five men, the Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police Tuesday claimed to have busted a gang involved in smuggling of stolen mobile phones from Delhi-NCR to Bangladesh. The stolen mobile phones would be first sent to Agartala from Delhi through air cargo and from there to Bangladesh with help of smugglers on instructions of a Gujarat-based man, the STF said. The agency also claimed that payments worth over Rs 19 lakh were made through hawala to a courier firm in Delhi's Karol Bagh which was used for sending the phones. Five suspects involved in the case were arrested Monday evening by the Noida unit of the STF, officials said.

''The UP STF had been getting inputs of mobile phones of various companies being stolen while being transported from factories to logistic centres in Delhi-NCR,'' Additional Superintendent of Police (STF) Raj Kumar Mishra said. ''During investigation, it came to light that a gang was behind such thefts. The gang members befriended truck drivers or took jobs as truck drivers of transporters engaged by mobile companies to commit the crime,'' Mishra said.

Those arrested have been identified as Harsh Bansal, Anil Kumar, Anshu Singh, Keshav Karan and Rajeev Dev, the STF said. Bansal is a native of Rajasthan, while the rest are from western UP -- Anil and Anshu from Hathras whereas Keshav and Rajeev from Aligarh, the agency said. During investigation, it came to light that after a heist in May this year, 280 stolen mobile phones were sold by Bansal to one Gujarat-based man identified as Qasim, according to the STF. Qasim further sent those phones to his contact Amit Hussain in Agartala in Tripura who in turn got them smuggled into Bangladesh, it said. In Delhi, a payment of Rs 19.60 lakh was made through hawala by Qasim to the Delhi-based courier company for the 280 mobile phones, the STF claimed. Further investigations and legal proceedings in the case are underway, it added.