According to sources in the mobile service providing industry on an average 120 SIM cards per day were blocked during the nine days of Navratri.
Garba revellers at venues in the city lost more than some weight dancing to the melodious tunes. Many of them lost their expensive mobile phones. In fact announcements asking people to return a lost mobile phone if they came across one were common at various garba venues.
According to sources in the mobile service providing industry on an average 120 SIM cards per day were blocked during the nine days of Navratri. Which means as many as 1,000 mobile phones had been stolen during this Navratri.
Another source, who did not want to be named said usually on an average a mobile service provider received 15 complaints per day asking them to block the SIM cards. Such a request is usually made when mobile phones go missing or are stolen.
“But this figure increased to over 30 such calls per day during Navratri. The cards are usually blocked when the mobile is stolen and, given the rise in number of such requests it seems many mobiles were stolen during these nine days,” the source said. One such victim, Sandip told DNA that he was carrying his mobile phone in his pocket while watching garba at Xavier’s college on Sunday.
“There was a crowd and the next thing I knew was that my mobile was missing,” he said. Sources, say Sandip is just one of the many victims of mobile theft during Navratri. Interestingly, given the high number of request to block SIM cards, indicating that many mobiles were stolen, there were no police complaints related to mobile thefts. “We have not received any complaint about mobile thefts during Navratri,” senior police inspector, Satellite Police Station, MH Vasani told DNA.
But announcements about missing mobile were a routine thing at most of the garba venues. “Four incidents of mobile thefts were reported at our garba venue during Navratri,” said Himanshu Shah, managing director, SOI Group.
Similarly, proprietor, True Events, Jaydeep Mehta said two announcements about missing mobiles were made. But garba operators say most of the time the owners misplace their mobile and think it was stolen. Police sources say those involved in stealing mobile phones from garba venues usually come there as revellers.
“They wear traditional dresses and go to garba venues as revellers. They even take part in the event but when the opportunity presents itself they steal the mobile phones. It becomes very difficult to trace such thefts,” said the source.
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