Stolen mobile phones worth Rs 8 crore recovered in Noida as interstate gang busted

The arrests were made on Tuesday during a routine checking in Kakrala village which falls under the jurisdiction of the Noida Phase 2 police station, officers said. (File photo)

The Noida Police has arrested six members of an interstate robbery gang and taken two juveniles into custody, while recovering 821 stolen mobile phones — mostly OnePlus handsets followed by iPhones — worth an estimated Rs 6 crore to Rs 8 crore, police said on Tuesday.

Acting on inputs, the police intercepted the gang and recovered a large cache of high-end smartphones belonging to various brands, they added.

According to the police, the gang was actively involved in stealing mobile phones from crowded places such as local markets, vegetable mandis, fruit markets, and weekly bazaars across the National Capital Region (NCR). They primarily targeted people during the winter season, especially those wearing jackets, as mobile phones kept in jacket pockets were easier to steal, officers added.

Police said the accused operated in groups and leveraged the moments where people were easily distracted to steal the phones. After stealing a phone, if there was any suspicion of being caught, the phone was quickly passed to another accomplice to avoid recovery, officers said.

Once a large number of phones were collected, the men would travel by train to Jharkhand and Bihar—the native states of most of the gang members. Every two to three months, the stolen devices were shipped to Nepal for sale, officers added.

“Most of the recovered phones are OnePlus devices, followed by iPhones, indicating that the gang specifically targeted expensive smartphones,” said DCP central, Shakti Mohan Awasthi.

The arrested accused have been identified as Govinda Mahto (32), Rohit Saini (20), Shyam Kumar Rai (23), Bhartiya Mahto (35), Shekhar (25), and Pradeep Kumar (32). Two juvenile delinquents were also taken into custody.

According to the police, several of the accused are originally from Jharkhand and Bihar and were currently residing in the Bisrakh area of Noida.

Police records show that while two of the accused studied up to Class 12, the others, including the juveniles, are illiterate.

The accused and the juveniles were already involved in multiple cases registered at the Phase 2 police station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), officers said.