Minors' involvement a major worry

NASHIK: Majority of the robbers behind mobile phone thefts are juveniles, the police have observed, who commit the crime for easy money. Youths target those with expensive smartphones and attack the victim in crowded areas where it is easy to disappear in the crowd after committing the robbery.
Recently, the Panchavati police arrested three accused and detained two minors for their alleged involvement in mobile thefts.The police arrested the three accused, Raghunath Bodakhe, Deepak Shelke and Akash Mohite and detained two juveniles from whom they had recovered as many as 40 mobile phones worth Rs 3.20 lakh.
Senior inspector B D Bardekar said that major criminals act as handlers and use minors to commit such thefts. "The recent case is the best example at hand. The juveniles go unpunished even if they are caught by the police and hence are used by criminals to steal the phones," he added. Another advantage of having minor commit the crime is that they easily slip in the crowd and are hard to detect.
Bardekar said that criminals lure youngsters from the economically backward sections with expensive phones ans other gadgets to commit crimes. "The stolen mobile phones are sold at throwaway prices. The person actually committing the crime does not sell the device directly and goes to the market through a third person," he added.
The official added that shopkeepers who buy and trade these stolen mobile phones are being taken on record and made to act as eyewitnesses. "The minors are given commission by the handlers. Juveniles learn skills of stealing phones from the shirt pocket, distracting the target and other such modus operandi from the seasoned players already in the trade," the police official added.