37,878 mobiles stolen in 2014, 43% of them from Delhi

In a reply tabled in the Lok Sabha Tuesday, Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Chaudhary said 37,878 mobile thefts were registered in 2014. Delhi accounted for 16,362 complaints, three times as high as Maharashtra’s 5,697, the second highest. The other major states with a high count are West Bengal with 2,049 cases, Uttar Pradesh with 1,798, Karnataka with 1,750 and Bihar with 1,591 cases.

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Between a fifth and a fourth of the stolen mobiles — 9,055 or 23.9 per cent — were returned to their owners. The highest number of recoveries is in Maharashtra with 1,956, which at 34.33 per cent is five times as high as Delhi’s recovery rate of 6.60 per cent (1,081 recoveries). In absolute terms, the next highest counts for recoveries are in UP at 642, West Bengal at 530 and Tamil Nadu at 522.

There have been complaints about police not registering complaints of mobile theft. The Centre issued an advisory was issued to all states for compulsory registration of FIR under CrPC section 154 when the information makes for a cognisable offence.

The National Telecom Policy of 2012 had provided for facilitating establishment of a National Mobile Property Registry for addressing security, theft and other concerns including reprogramming of mobile handsets. There is no such comprehensive registry but there is a zonal integrated police network (ZIPNET) with details (IMEI numbers) of lost/stolen mobile handsets.

“Citizens are advised to check the list of stolen/list mobile handsets on ZIPNET before purchasing a pre-owned mobile phone,” Haribhai Chaudhary said in the Lok Sabha.