Hyderabad police bust cell phone racket gang, seized 563 cell phones all worth Rs 1.92 cr

HYDERABAD: The Special Operation Team, Madhapur zone, and Raidurg police busted a cell phone theft racket and arrested one person from the gang on Wednesday.

The gang stole Samsung, One Plus, Oppo, Realme, Motorola, Vivo, POCO, Redmi, IQOO Nokia, and other brands of smartphones. The police recovered 563 smart phones, Rs 3,00,000 cash, two personal phones and a four-wheeler, all worth Rs. 1.92 crore.

According to the police, accused Ramanji, who lives in LB Nagar Kadapa district, worked as an RTC conductor in Falaknuma Depot from 1995 to 2005 after finishing his studies. In 2006, he also began a real estate business.

However, he suffered significant losses in the real estate sector, following which he began making money quickly by obtaining cell phones at a reduced cost from other states and transporting them in big numbers to receivers in Hyderabad.

He was also sentenced to prison from Shameerpet police station in 2016 under Cr. No: 354/2016 for illegal possession of stolen mobile phones.

He was apparently doing the same thing for easy money after being released from jail. He was also charged with trespassing on land in 2021 at the Rachakonda Commissionerate's Abdullapurmet Police Station.

Based on credible information, SOT Madhapur, in collaboration with Raidurg Police, seized a Hyundai Creta car Br. No: TS07GU6797 smuggled and stolen mobile phones on August 8, 2023 at 5 a.m. within the Raidurg PS limits and arrested the accused.

The stolen mobile phones were reportedly purchased for Rs. 2,000 to 4,000 from Akash and Sunny of Akividu, Andhra Pradesh, and Vamsi of Karnataka, and then sold to the buyers Asif and Arshad of Hyderabad, for a higher prices and profits.

A case was registered Cr. No 687/2023, U/s 379 IPC, r/w 411 IPC of Raidurg police station.