Delhi Police busts mobile phone IMEI-changing racket

The Delhi Police has arrested three men who were allegedly involved in changing the IMEI numbers of stolen mobile phones and selling them in the market. The police recovered 79 mobile phones and a laptop with IMEI-changing software from their possession.
The gang was busted by the team of police station Hari Nagar after they nabbed one of the accused, Narabjeet Singh, with a stolen mobile phone whose IMEI number was altered. He revealed the names of his associates, Manish and Gurmeet Singh, alias Molu, who were also arrested later.

DCP Western district, Vichitra Veer, said in a press statement that “the gang used to receive stolen mobile phones from various sources and then change their IMEI numbers using a laptop and software.” The IMEI number is a unique identifier of a mobile device that helps in tracking and blocking it in case of theft or loss. By changing the IMEI number, the gang made the stolen phones untraceable and sold them at a lower price, added Veer.

The police said that the gang had been operating for the last six months and had changed the IMEI numbers of hundreds of mobile phones. The police have connected four cases of theft and robbery with the recovered phones so far and are investigating the source and destination of the phones.

The accused have been booked under sections 379 (theft), 380 (theft in a dwelling house), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), and 471 (using a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act. They have been remanded to judicial custody.