Buying cell phone from stranger lands man in jail

Little did a 22-year-old collegian realised that buying a cell phone from an unknown person would land him behind the bars. Few days after he started using his new cellphone, he was caught by the Azad Maidan police who told him that the phone belonged to a doctor from Bombay Hospital from where it was stolen eight months ago.

The arrested person has been identified as Aamir Abidul Rehman Shaikh (22), a resident of Null Bazaar.

According to the police, on July 27 last year, Shrinivasan MR, a doctor from the Bombay Hospital, complained that his cell phone was stolen from his hostel room. He informed hospital security about it and when CCTV grabs were checked he saw an unknown person entering and exiting from his room. The doctor then lodged a theft case. Recently, the police traced the IMEI number of the cell phone and arrested Shaikh from south Mumbai.

“The stolen mobile has been recovered from Shaikh. During interrogation he told us a man had recently sold him the phone for a song. Shaikh claimed that he did not know that the cell phone was a stolen one. We also matched him with the person who was caught in the hospital CCTV camera, but he doesn’t resemble with that person. We are now
searching for the main culprit,” said a police officer.

“The person who actually stole the phone is very sharp as he kept the phone with him for almost nine months without using it. If he would have switched on the cell phone we could have traced him.”

@s_somen