The Shimla police achieved a recovery ratio of 27.5 per cent for lost and stolen phones, making it the best-performing unit in Himachal Pradesh for 2025 in terms of mobile phone recovery, according to the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) of the Department of Telecommunication (DoT).
Sandeep Arya, Deputy Director General, DoT, conveyed this to the district police in Shimla Wednesday. The Shimla police will be honoured for their performance during a day-long workshop of the Annual Zonal Security Council in the Solan district Thursday.
Representatives from state police and Central agencies in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh will attend the workshop.
According to the CEIR, the Shimla district police traced 770 mobile phones out of a total of 1,262 blocking requests received between January 1 and November 5. However, only 27.5 per cent (212) of these traced phones have been recovered so far.
Meanwhile, in terms of overall performance, Himachal Pradesh has a 33.21 per cent recovery ratio in 2025. The state police have so far blocked 19,412 mobile phones, out of which 13,824 have been traced and 5,588 have been recovered.
The Shimla police have 22 police stations, including a cyber cell and a women’s police Station.
The Jhakhari police station recorded one of the highest recovery rates at 59.5 per cent, followed by the Kupvi station, which recorded 54.5 per cent. Chirgaon and New Shimla police stations recorded 50.8 per cent and 50 per cent recovery rates, respectively.
The Sadar Shimla police station reported the highest number of blocking requests (257), with 142 mobiles traced and a 27.5 per cent recovery rate.
A police officer said, “When a missing, stolen and robbed phone was found being operated along with its location, it was considered to be traced, and the phone was recovered from the suspects or found anywhere, it was considered recovered.”
Sources said that 212 out of 770 traced cell phones were recovered from Himachal Pradesh and several distant states, including Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and neighbouring states such as Punjab, Haryana, and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The recovered phones had been used in various crimes, including sextortion, making extortion calls, and other cybercrimes. There are still 558 unrecovered cell phones under surveillance, and efforts are ongoing to trace them.
Sanjeev Gandhi, Superintendent of Police (SP), Shimla, said, “Mobiles and digital apps are nowadays not only a medium of conversation or communication. However, this has become more of a tool for business or commerce. Nowadays, all identity and KYC-related platforms are run on mobile devices. Shimla police have attained proficiency in professional abilities to solve cases of murder, kidnapping, and narcotics trafficking, as well as in tracing the missing children.”
“We will enhance our capabilities by adding more capacity building and techno upgrades in the skills of our cyber cell wing of Shimla. The exercises to trace and recover any gadget require lots of patience, knowledge, and expertise in the field of understanding the value of digital footprints as well.”
212 out of 770 traced cell phones were recovered from Himachal Pradesh and several distant states. (Credit: Pexels) 
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