Union Minister's mobile stolen: Is there any hope?

Almost each one of us has that friend who has lost a mobile phone and with it the hope of getting it back. It is a known fact that if you have lost the phone then it is lost forever. It will not come back, even if it was yours or never was. But, it is even more difficult to nab a culprit if the theft happens under foolproof security.

Yesterday, despite the security cover to the Union minister, it could not prevent a mobile phone lifter to coolly snatch away the phone of Union labour minister and Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya. The theft of Dattatreya’s mobile phone took place in his office at Ramnagar. It has gone to raise a lot of questions regarding the increasing number of stolen mobile cases in India.

There has been zillion such cases when a cell phone is lost, reported and never found. In one such case, Deputy Commissioner of Coimbatore City Police R. Sivakumar, who was earlier the DC of the cyber crime cell of the Chennai City Police, said that chances of a person getting back his smartphone are remote – compared to a basic model mobile phone.

He adds, “In addition to talking and sending messages, smart phones have many features such as good quality music players, camera and games and applications supporting it. These options can be used even without an SIM card. Some even give such phones to their children to play games.”

Hence having smartphones adds to the complicity of tracking your sim card. Which in turn reduces the scope of police tracking the phone as a new SIM card has not been used. He revealed, that only 20 percent of the stolen expensive mobile phones were used for such purposes about two years ago and which has now increased to 50 per cent. Such expensive phones and their dismantled spare parts often end up in the grey market because their display and battery fetch a good price.

However, nobody knows the real number of thefts for mobile phones. What gets reported is just tip of the iceberg. And come to think of it, that what is safer than being a high profile minister under full security. A large number of people were in the room to meet MP Bandaru Dattatreya and someone stole the mobile phone, police said.

It is also difficult to file an FIR for a lost phone because they are already aware that most mobile phone thefts cannot be detected. Mostly, the police only register a case for mobile phone thefts, when the accused is caught red-handed while trying to flee with a stolen mobile.

Hope the Union Minister does find his mobile back, while hope we develop better internal and external support systems fro stolen mobile phones.