Waiter held with 13 stolen phones worth 2.4 lakh at Mapusa

Panaji: Police arrested a West Bengal native, working as a waiter at a restaurant at Mapusa, for stealing 13 cellphones worth Rs 2.4 lakh.Colvale police tracked the missing and stolen mobile phones based on information generated through the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) portal.The police said they initially traced one phone stolen from Dattaprasad Petrol Pump at Colvale in May. The stolen phone was found in the possession of Kuldeep Mahato, a native of Jharkhand, working as a cook in a restaurant at Mapusa.Mahato told the police that he purchased the phone from Chayyel Mondal, 22, a native of West Bengal, who was also working as a waiter in the same restaurant.During the inquiry, Mondal admitted that he stole the phone from Colvale. Initially, he was arrested on the state complaint lodged by PSI Rohan Madgaonkar after five stolen mobile phones were recovered from him. Subsequently, another eight mobile phones were recovered from him.“Efforts are being made to identify his accomplices and ascertain the sources from where the remaining mobile phones were stolen. Further investigation is in progress with ASI Anil Pilgaonkar,” said Colvale PI Sanjit Kandolkar.The CEIR is Union govt’s department of telecommunications database in India that allows users to block lost or stolen phones by blacklisting the IMEI number. Once it is blocked and if anyone tries to insert another SIM in it, police get an alert, and they are able to trace the location of the phone.