Four arrested for ‘changing’ cellphone IMEI numbers

“When we raided one Lakshmi Mobile shop,we found it possessing Chinese mobile phones that were banned by India in 2009 for not using IMEI number. This led us to one Krishna Mobile shop where IMEI numbers of all kinds of mobile phones were being deleted or altered,” said SOG Inspector C C Khatana.

All the four mobile shop owners have been booked under Sections 66 (C&D) and 68 of Information Technology Act,and under Sections 483 and 485 of the Indian Penal Code for counterfeiting and possessing instruments to counterfeit.

The seized instruments have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar for examination,Khatana said.

“The software they were using are not licensed but can be downloaded. We want to find out if this technology fell into the hands of anti-national elements,given the sensitive nature of the region,” he added.

Police can track down a mobile phone using its unique IMEI number,which is usually printed inside the battery compartment of a mobile phone.