Forty-year-old Mary Rani, working in a private school here as a teacher, was a worried lot when she lost her smart mobile that contained data relating to the school and students. So was a farmer, K. Ramayya, from Kandukuru who lost his cell phone at a bus station.
However, their worries soon came to a naught as an IT core team, constituted by Prakasam district Superintendent of Police Malika Garg specially for the purpose of tracing and retrieving lost mobiles, sprung into action and traced their mobiles in no time.
Their Standard Operating Procedure include taking note of the International Mobile Equipment Identity(IMEI), a 15 digit code unique to each mobile, and logging in the details in the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems(CCTNS) and obtaining call data from the service providers concerned.
“Earlier, we had problems lodging complaints when we lost our phones. But now, the Prakasam police are prompt in taking the complaints on file and tracing lost mobiles,” said Srinivasa Rao, a farmer who had lost his cell phone while taking his produce to the market yard in Addanki.
“We were able to retrieve 525 of the 2,162 lost mobile phones worth over ₹52.50 lakh in the four months of constituting the IT core team,” the SP said, after handing over the 500th lost mobile phone to its rightful owner.
In the event of one losing one’s mobile phone, one can go to the police station concerned without any hesitation, fill in the prescribed form with IMEI and other details and hand it over at the reception counter, she said. Immediately, the IT core team will begin the task of tracing the mobile phone after obtaining call data record details from the service providers.
Police advised the people to avoid purchasing mobile phones from unauthorised persons without a proper receipt and warranty card. Such devices might have been involved in some criminal activity too.
